Thirteen Moons of Blood
by Luke Danger
Summary: When Warmonga met Shego, the lorwardian introduced herself as being the victor in the Battle of the Thirteen Moons of Jingos. But what occurred in this battle? What was so significant about this victory that having such a title was a point of pride worth mentioning over others? This record seeks to tell the story of the blood that drenched these moons, and the people who spilled it
1. Chapter 1 - Training: Introduction

**Lorwardian Stardate 7/3/578 (Approximately Mid 1979 CE)**

**Orlok the Immortal's Estate**

**Lorwardia**

"A squadron of _Minotaurus_ walkers are advancing onto your own Strike Walkers, spearhead formation. What is the appropriate response?"

"To defeat them, of course, in a glorious battle."

"No, Uruk, that is not correct." A swift punch to the brutish trainee's gut swiftly showed his inaccuracy. "Can one of you tell me the reasoning?" He paused until one of the others rose. "Yes, Tsavong?"

"The _Minotaurus,_ a bipedal quad-cannoned mechanized walker weighing seventy-seven hundred qualocks each, was designed by the asura as a direct counter to our walker technology. They specialize in the role as their cannons are purpose-built for directional impact blasts to better pierce armor and shielding. This means that while still inferior directly, they are more capable of inflicting casualties. However, warriors moving on foot are capable of avoiding the targeting systems as it is ill suited for smaller, non-walker targets. They are still dangerous to smaller targets, but their specialization proves to be a fatal weakness."

"Good, sit down." The large lorwardian clad in black armor paced briefly before pointing a gauntleted hand towards the holographic representation of the Alliance walkers moving up to engage. "If you will one day command, you must understand both the strengths and the weaknesses of your forces, and those of your enemies. The _Minotaurus_ walkers are just one example of many that you need to be able to understand in a short time. The ones you are pitted against are of caladanian variation. What does this mean, Nei?"

The female lorwardian stood, "This means that it will be enhanced mechanically rather than possessing a secondary launcher. The four variations are ruby, amethyst, azure, and emerald."

"And, respectively, the mechanical effects of the walkers?"

"Increased rate of fire from duplicate energies in the crystal power source, smaller size required granting increased mobility and makes it a slightly harder target without sacrificing combat strength, concussive impacts which partially alleviates the weakness against infantry warriors, and increased primary high-explosive firepower."

"Exactly. The caladanian variant uses the crystals native to their home system, Jingos, and the moons on which the caladanians evolved on. This makes it much more of a direct threat than the asuran variant which uses their advanced technology and magic to launch an assortment of devices and charms into the battlefield..." the instructor glanced at the "Yes, Uruk?"

"Warlord Orlok, why does the Alliance use multiple variations of the same walker? Surely it asks for difficulties in arming them." He did not sound scared of another punch, and he would not receive one. His instructor was not one to punish a fair question.

"Had the design used kinetic munitions, you would be correct. However, as you are all well aware the Minotaurus' primarily powered by energy matrixes to charge its plasma batteries. One of the main sources is, indeed, the caladanian home system Jingos. Now, Giar, what is the origin of the Alliance's primary line of fighter craft?"

The young pilot rose, "The _Dragonfly_ line of craft, designed by the caladanians and modified by the asura, is the primary vehicle of the Alliance's air divisions. While inferior to the meriur starfighter craft like the _Oranos_, they are far more common and do not require magical potential to pilot. Dragonfly craft are designed with dual propulsion, the atmospheric system being a series of flight modules which creates lift in a similar way to most avian species, reducing strain on engines and providing a lower-tech emergency landing system with control. In space, it locks these modules into place and switches to standard propulsion methods."

"Good." Orlok glanced up to the end of the training hall and nodded as he saw who was standing there at the door. "Dismissed. You know your assignments of study tonight."

The warriors got up, Tsavong nodded to the plate armored lorwardian warlord who had entered, "Father." he said with a smile as he left. Orlok shook his head faintly as the rest of them left and nodded.

"Warlord Warbeak, what can I do for you?" Orlok asked as he sized up the warlord whose armor was stylized to represent a bird of prey via dark red paint.

"I had hoped to see my son's training, he is a fine warrior, is he not?" Warbeak answered heartily, an inactive plasma blade hanging from his belt.

"He is, and he has his eyes upon another of the class, young Nei."

Warbeak shrugged off the comment, "He is matured, it is only natural that he would find someone who he would share glory with. How long is left?"

"Until they head out to their own battles?" Orlok asked with a raised eyebrow. "My training will only last another standard month, and then it is their choice as to their path, be it Manifest or Expansionist."

"Then there will be glory in a month," Warbeak said with a smile, "A month until they begin to carve their own names, to become feared by all of the Alliance..."

_I'm not in the mood for this,_ Orlok thought as he cut his blathering of expected pride off. "I have preparations to see to, Warlord. Excuse me."

"Of course, I will wait in the atrium if you wish to talk."

"No, unless there are pressing matters."

"Very well, find glory in your conquests, Orlok the Immortal."

_Immortal._ The name stuck in Orlok's mind briefly as he watched Warbeak leave before finally exiting, the thud of his heavy black armor resounding with each heavy step. It was armor, but it was also his cybernetics. Having suffering deep wounds in a battle with an elite group of asuran warp troopers and a meriur shadow disciple, he had nearly died. Then he was rescued by his comrades and they managed to keep him stable enough until they could augment him with the cybernetics he now wore. They had been upgraded since then, mostly shielding and additional backup systems to ensure they were not disrupted by electromagnetic pulse weapons, but they did leave a residual feeling of unease as he walked through the halls. He no longer suffered the blood haze as the glands which produced additional adrenaline were lost, and he had enough cybernetics that some said he would live forever. This belief, combined with his glory, had gained him a new name to replace his former war name, _Bloodrage_. He sighed, _Oh to be young again, to feel the rage of battle in my veins, to feel the bloodlust that characterized my youth. To feel the simple times again..._

He shook the nostalgia away. He had grown far above that simple bloodlust as a berserker dual wielding energy scythes to rip opponents apart anywhere from molecule by molecule to whole heads. He now studied the finesse of battle and the art of war rather than spilling blood for the honor coupons. Indeed, he had progressed far in a warrior's lifetime, from the rage of youth to the wisdom of age.

XXX

XXX

**Two Standard Hours Later**

**Spar'Tan's Blood and Tankard Tavern**

"So," Giar asked as he emptied his metal tankard of a non-alcoholic energy drink. "What do you think your war name will be, Tsavong?"

"I don't know," the burly lorwardian, rubbing his chin and glancing up with his yellow eyes, ponytail on his mostly-bald head hanging to the side. "But I think I'll follow the vein of my father. Wareagle, perhaps, or maybe one of the older spellings of Warhawk."

"Well, you've been spending a lot of the time with the jet pack," Uruk commented in his normal deep guttural voice as he took a swill from his tankard, which _was_ filled with an alcoholic beverage. He was built like a brute, heavyset and top heavy, but almost all of it was muscle. He wore his greenish-black hair long, and a forked beard dropped from his chin, matching the black hide clothing he wore when not going to battle. "But I want something that strikes more than just a bird of prey. Warhamur, or Brut'Taal, perhaps."

"Archaic spellings?" Giar asked.

"Course. How about you, Giar? What're you going to become an ace as?"

The slim, bald pilot put a thoughtful hand to his shaven face. He was small for a lorwardian, but most pilots tended to be, as they could handle the cramped space of a cockpit. "Battlehawk, I believe, conventional spelling. A fine name for the leader of a Thannix squadron, don't you think?"

"Maybe," Nei said, turning her head so her green ponytail was visible. "But I believe the name should be earned by a peer giving it to you rather than be chosen. Look at the Warlord..."

"To be fair to the Immortal, the name only came because he _is_, his original war name self chosen, right?" Uruk chimed in with a shrug as his hand dropped to one of his favored power hammers.

"Only because no one else could describe the state he was in when he earned it." Tsavong explained with a casual shrug. "Besides, so long as it is a good name to be remembered by and it is remembered, then we will live on, no?"

The holo-transmitter in the center of the table started beeping. Glancing at it, it read that it was a war update on the war as a whole. A brief nod from the group prompted Giar to turn it on. Images a battle were present in the desert of some world. The lorwardians were in conflict with Alliance forces, though they could not make out who it was yet.

"Minotaurus walkers, so it's either asuran or caladanian." Giar commented as the drone recording and transmitting it moved into a better position.

"Based on the energy shot, I would say caladanian." Nei said as one of the walkers fired green plasma bolts. "I have always wanted to see those avian get their feathers ripped from them."

"Wouldn't we all?" Uruk grunted. "They are the weakest of the Alliance, by far. Yes, they possess so-called superpowers, but they lack the genius of the asura or that accursed magical might the meriur have. I'd rather fight meriur than caladanians. All they have to them is two fairly worthy powers in some of the population and sharp feathers..."

"Metallic feathers," Tsavong commented as the drone got close to get a look at the caladanian soldiers themselves.

The drone had chosen to focus on a lorwardian warrior who was rushed by a desperate caladanian soldier who leapt from the trench the Alliance defenders were fighting from. As his particle rifle was knocked away, the caladanian rushed with claws ready and the sharp metallic feathers on edge so that they were like a row of serrated blades. His claws had a distinct blue glow as the warrior blocked the swipe with his staff, severing it mostly in half. The warrior finished the break and dual wielded, knocking the caladanian off of his feet and onto his back before stabbing with the still working end. The caladanian rolled to the side, dodging the lethal strike, but was knocked away by an off-hand smack and the warrior finished the barely conscious soldier off. The warrior then leapt into the trench to brawl with other caladanian soldiers in hand to hand combat as it became a rainbow mess of caladanian powers and lorwardian plasma as a few other warriors joined the first. The battle raged on, recorded by the drone, and their conversation continued.

"I still wish we could crush one of those Alliance species already." Nei commented as she held her arms. "It is wrong that they have been able to resist lorwardian strength for so long."

"Through sheer numbers, if nothing else." Uruk commented as he leaned forward. "Soon we will get our chance at earning glory, and it shall be with the blood of caladanians, meriur, and asura that we'll brew the victory toast. I've always wanted to try one of those asuran blood brews your father sometimes makes, Tsavong..."

The door opened and Tsavong glanced at who entered. "Nei... it's Cran."

Nei turned her head to see the rival walking in, like a bloodhound sensing prey. "Excuse me..." she said, pushing back her chair and walking over. The others leaned in to whisper.

"She's seriously going to do it? I thought they gave her a warning already about trying to get into fights too soon, even Creske isn't as eager to pick a fight, and she's a real berserker." Giar anxiously whispered.

"Bah, you worry too much about the instructors." Tsavong retorted derisively. "What are they going to do, yell at us for giving in? If anything, I would join in. So long as no one dies or is crippled, they will not raise a spear. In fact, I believe they will like it and be eager for us to turn our fury against our racial enemies."

"Old Spar'Tan might not appreciate a spontaneous brawl in his bar, though." Giar added as Nei started talking angrily with Cran, a challenge likely to follow as Cran made choice remarks about her skill with a weapon.

"Bah, he's far too old to care unless they damage something, old Hierarchy hond..."

And at that moment, Nei slammed Cran into a nearby free standing table, smashing it to pieces and spilling blood as the other lorwardian crashed through the reinforced table. Uruk got up, momentarily forgetting to leave his power hammer behind before he put it down, smiling viciously as others began to hurry in. Tsavong watched Nei's tactics with interest. She seemed to be determined to pick a fight, and quickly made a makeshift staff out of a stool's stem. He could not help but feel attracted to that kind of fighting, the desire to go in and carve glory with the blood of an enemy, yet not be so drawn into the bloodlust as to forget thinking. He noticed a group of other trainees from another teacher moving in. _Ah, Cran must have arranged for back up. Clever, to have allies._ He pushed himself up as Giar sighed. "Alright, Tsavong, I'll be your wingman."

He nodded, and the two joined the fight, rushing for Cran's back up and entangling themselves with them, keeping them from reaching Nei. Tsavong smiled as he leapt into the air to dodge a kick from one of the reinforcement trainees, landing on another before charging forward, enjoying the adrenaline rush pumped into his body by the rage of battle.

By the time Spar'Tan and his sons got involved and finally broke the fight up, the only ones standing were Tsavong and Nei, who smiled at each other as Uruk was being dragged away from the pile by Giar.

XXX

**End Chapter**

Standard Disclaimers: I do not own the Kim Possible series, nor anything related to it. That belongs to Disney and affiliates of which I am of no part of. Drakken owned Beuno Nacho briefly, but that got confiscated when the courts found out he had used mind control to make the old owners sign it over to him...

_Author's Notes:_

_- This is a fanfic that has been bouncing around my head for a while. Basically, what was the Thirteen Moons of Jingos? Warmonga mentions it in passing to Shego during _'Mad Dogs and Aliens'_, but otherwise the lorwardians in the show were purely 'alien conquistadors out of nowhere'. I've always figured that this meant there was a greater galaxy out there, and therefore many stories open. Therefore, I've decided to finally tell the story. Fair warning: This is intended to become a War Fic as a result of well, it's a galactic war going on. I believe that I will be able to keep it within the Teen rating while being realistic enough, but if the content turns out to be too much I will adjust the rating accordingly._

_- Given the room that I have to work, I also wanted to take the chance to look into the history of Warmonga and Warhok, to show them before they became the powerful conquerors that they are seen as in the show. 'Humanize' them, if you would. One example is the usage of the 'war name' thing, which is something I felt fit the lorwardians thematically; they _earn_ their name in war and until then have a name they were born with. So, why not start with seeing them before they earned that?_

_- Also, the only two characters from canon are going to be Warhok and Warmonga, everyone else is going to be characters that I created because... there's literally nothing beyond Earth other than these two. So, expect some world building to go on. However, I will do my best to avoid information dump and limit it to allusions and explaining things as they become relevant._


	2. Chapter 2 - Training: History and Sims

_"Your lust for battle will aid you, but you must control it long enough to bring it to the appropriate place. Your warmongering is a valuable trait and you will find many ways to satiate it, but until that time you must control it. Now, I understand you are graduating next month. Don't worry, I'll be there, and when it is over, the Durnai system will have another great warleader."_

- Warbrin'ger, to his daughter Nei, one hour after the brawl in Spar'Tan's Blood and Tankard Tavern over a holo-call.

XXX

**The Next Day**

**Orlok the Immortal's Estate**

Orlok took attendance mentally and sighed. "Short on class again, it seems..." The door opened and two entered, a large lorwardian female with dreadlocks and a small lorwardian male, though not quite as small as Giar. The male wore a full yet minimally armored body suit with a tech harness, while the female wore a pair of large gauntlets with energy emitters for dual plasma scythes and a simple suit of thick hide body armor. Orlok looked at them calmly before giving a deadpan remark. "You're late."

"Sorry," the male said sheepishly as his skin paled to a lighter tone of green in embarrassment, "The doctor held me back to make sure my Bovine Fever passed and that it was not an asuran genophage. I have a note... sorry about the format..." He walked up towards Orlok and passed him the piece of hide and Orlok read it, nodding slowly.

"I understand, he is very much prefers the feel of written work. You may sit, Borivik. Your excuse, Creske?" He raised an eyebrow at the female as he put the hide note on his desk.

"My mom made me clean her armor, she's heading out to the Pyres system as part of Warlord BattleF'yuri's effort to do what the Manifest Hierarchy forces cannot."

"And?" Orlok asked, ignoring the jibe at the Manifest Hierarchy warriors knowing this was not the full excuse. Creske winced, likely finally remembering her instructor's political stances... and policy on truancy.

"And... I lost track of time in the dojo carving through target-" _Wham_. Orlok's fist flew and hit her square in the face, staggering her backwards three meters and knocking her onto her back, blood trickling from her nose as she put a hand where he had hit.

"Lateness in battle costs lives, young Creske, including your own. You must be ready to set aside your own kill count in battle. Take your seat."

The thick muscled lorwardian female pushed herself back up and took her seat as Orlok walked to the front and the controls to the projector. "Now that most of you have been bloodied, either just now or in last night's 'activities', it is time to see your appreciation." Orlok dryly commented as he looked over his class. "Where does your equipment come from?"

"The factories." Tsavong said dismissively. "Does it matter which one, be it made by prisoner or manufacturer? It is all equipment."

_"If a warrior cannot count upon his gear in battle, he would be better off not to use it." _Orlok stated simply, quoting the proverb yet again to the arrogant young warriors. Only Giar and Borivik seemed to grasp the meaning of the proverb. "Giar, explain the meaning of this proverb."

The smallest of the class stood. "The proverb is a reminder to warriors to remember that much of their greatness comes from the manufacturers of our people. Our armor, our weapons, and more often than not our food, they are all created by those who chose to master the art of craft so that the warriors might go out and conquer."

"Good." Orlok said with a nod as the pilot trainee sat. "This is a lesson you must all understand. As such, we will be instead going through history today. I am certain each of you is familiar with the four castes... Tsavong, you have studied the warriors and hunters of our ancient years. State each caste and its original purpose."

Tsavong rose, nose broken and cracked dried blood on his green skin from where he had been cut in the brawl last night. "Four castes, each to support each other. The Manufacturers build the tools of war while the Thinkers develop them. Hunters to feed the war, and warriors to wage it." His voice began with barely concealed derision, but as he continued to his last sentence the derision faded and was replaced with a smile.

"And how have their roles evolved since?"

"For one, the former control loosened drastically and there is great mobility, enabling the shifting of caste by an individual. But in actual roles, Thinkers and the glorious Warriors have remained the same, developing and fighting war respectively. Manufacturers have evolved in accordance with technology development and begun the working on farms and other food production. Hunters, as a result, have shifted their efforts to guiding warriors through battle and continue to hunt down large and dangerous prey worthy of their effort."

"Correct. Sit down, Tsavong." Orlok instructed as he began to pace, hands behind his back as he instructed these potential leaders. _At least, four potentials,_ Orlok had generally seen as he wasnot so sure on Creske and Uruk beyond squad level given their habits. He hoped to be surprised. "I am certain you all are aware of the move to officially disband the Hunter caste in light of its actions matching warriors more than hunters, with only a limited number actually fulfilling their original purpose." He paused, "Borivik, stand." He did so. "Tell me which philosophy of our people advocates for this position."

"Manifest Hierarchy, Warlord."

"Good. Sit down. Uruk, stand. What are the details of our other philosophy?"

The brute of a lorwardian paused, blinking, "Expanding our glory through action?"

Orlok paused in front of him before punching him square in the gut. Uruk nearly bent over in pain before recovering. "You are correct in the bluntest of terms, but you have missed the point. The Expansionist philosophy seeks to spread the lorwardian might not through an organized campaign of conquest, but as a private affair with their friends for glory. This has worked on colonies, but it has proven inefficient at taking strong and organized enemy forces on more permanently settled planets. Nei, stand. Why is this?"

"Because the groups have been weak?" She answered as she stood. "Warlord Warbeak has successfully taken several Alliance planets of significant strength through the methods you have described poorly."

A swift punch caught her in the gut. "Sit." Orlok stated. He was beginning to rack up a record of disciplinary strikes, teaching the children of Expansionists. Only Borivik and Giar seemed to understand there was more to war then swinging a staff weapon or sending an asura flying into the next territory with a hit from a power hammer. Orlok suspected this was true only because Borivik was more of a thinker than warrior and Giar was a pilot. Tsavong and Nei were close behind, but even they held hubris common to the Hunter caste and the Expansionists.

"There was nothing wrong with the strength of the warriors. Their weakness came from their disorganization. Their foes, the Alliance, understand this and when they fight an Expansionist force they understand that the undertaking is for personal glory, not a deliberate conquest planned or a strategized operation. This then enables them to anticipate and manipulate by playing off of these desires for glory. Even if you chose to follow the Expansionist philosophy, you must understand that victory does not only come through pure strength, but also comes through planning. You must learn how both your own forces think, and how your enemies think of what you think."

"But Warlord, if we are not strong enough, then would we not lose regardless of our planning?" Uruk asked.

"There is only so much that proper planning can accomplish, you are correct," he admitted without shame, "but you can reduce the amount of strength required by applying it properly instead of simply throwing weight against the tide. You must always aim for the killing blow, and not just in your individual battles, but in your strategies." He continued pacing as he lectured, bringing up various holograms of standard Alliance military structures. "Target the key installations and members of a target first; surface-to-orbital guns, nuclear missile silos, key military bases, command centers, communication relays, power stations and generators. If you are fighting the asura, destroy their laboratories to prevent the deployment of prototypes. These are the hubs of an operation, and breaking these hubs first will leave your enemy vulnerable. Never underestimate an enemy made vulnerable, however, and always plan for what they are _capable_ of rather than what they _have_ done."

He stopped next to the projector and brought up an image of a lightly armored female caladanian with red eyes. "Creske, this is your opponent. What are the potential capabilities of this individual?"

"Caldanian female, right?" The young berserker answered, scratching her head as she looked at the bipedal avian. "So, she can lay an egg without needing a guy, right? And her guns are going to probably have an increased rate of fire." He turned his head slightly in disappointment before her eyes widened in realization. "Oh, and if she's one of their Empowered, she can make a single duplicate of herself, though it can't shoot a gun made from duplication."

"And?"

"Uh... She might have a nuke launcher up her dress? Er, wait." She glanced at the caladanian's open palm and nodded to herself quickly. "And she might have magical powers if she ditched some of the above, like the duplication. Most caladanian magic users are the non-Empowered ruby power set since they have the population to not worry about finding a guy and can afford to lose the baby-making self-sufficiency to get magic."

"Correct." Orlok stated as he accessed new files and gathered the datapads lying next to the projector. "Now, before we continue I will give you your next assignment to work on at home. Within these datapads is an order of battle of forces available to you, and your intelligence reports of a target and details of your operational timetable. You will have until tomorrow morning to come up with a functional battle plan, then they will be ran during class and you will see them play out in the simulator. Your objective is to inflict a maximum amount of damage against the enemy." He handed the datapads to each of them. "You may go over them now, if you wish, but I would advise you pay attention to the history lessons. You will also be free to consult each other, but I would advise that you work on them on your own. Be sure to bring space in your datapads tomorrow as you will be expected to take notes on how each battle plan goes."

As he turned back, he glanced to his students from the side, watching each one. Borivik briefly looked at the datapad and winced briefly before shutting it back down and putting it to the side. Uruk and Creske were both engorged in it, while Giar, Tsavong, and Nei were looking at theirs until he reached the front and changed the projector image. _Let's see how they organize..._

XX

Nei frowned as she looked at her list. It should have been simple; taking a raiding group of a single dreadnaught, two cruisers, thirty starfighters, and a solid force of infantry warriors with the appropriate transports into a mixed colonies system of asuran and caladanian colonies with light defenses, primarily infantry, older vehicles, a few small ground based starfighter squadrons and a few token frigates scattered about. But something was wrong... this should have been a _simple_ mission, not a difficult plan to work. She curled her lip as she noticed the warlord reaching the front of the room and shut the datapad off and slipped it down.

"This should be simple," Tsavong whispered to her as Orlok adjusted the image.

"It should be if all we need to do is dish out damage, but there must be a trap..." This seemed too easy to her; even with Alliance support noted to be not too far away from the system. Sure, a single caladanian Battlestar type vessel and ten associated squadrons was not a dramatic threat to her fleet units in a straight fight. The Cruisers were, not counting fighter space, equal with the Battlestar. What made it a threat was when combined with the local defenses and an unknown time of joining in, it suddenly was a potentially lethal variable of dropping a large number of starfighters on a flank at the worst time possible.

"Maybe. But we should be able to deal with such rather easily." Tsavong shrugged.

"Knowing the Warlord's habit of surprises..."

"Nei, since you are so talkative today." Orlok cut in loudly. "Can you identify the birth name of the individual referred to as Blastspear."

She winced, realizing that her history was not as strong as it should have been. _We are here to learn how to bring war to our enemy's doorsteps, not..._ she cut the line of thought off and rose to answer. "Vauron?"

"Close, but incorrect." Fortunately, he did not strike for the wrong answer. _Considering that as 'good enough for Hierarchy work'_, she silently thought as he continued. "His name by birth was Vaurog, and many of the weapons you currently use are a direct result of his work. What was his caste by birth?"

"Manufacturer."

This time, he hit her. The fist came towards her shoulder, knocking her slightly backwards, left shoulder dropping down from the blow.

"Incorrect, he was of the Thinker caste. And what did he develop?"

"The first staff weapon of modern type, except it was a gunpowder weapon instead of a proper plasma weapon." Now, weapons she knew. "He also experimented with a gun weapon akin to longer versions of our pistols or the rifles used by the caladanians with this gunpowder, but in the end he decided the staff weapon worked best given the amount of gunpowder required to fire a bullet strong enough to be a significant threat in most circumstances."

"Correct. Sit." She did so as he turned to the pilot of the group. "Giar, identify the year with stardate time that this occurred."

He rose and answered automatically. "Four hundred years pre-stardate. As of now, roughly nine hundred and seventy standard years ago."

"What effect did this have on his nation?"

"Manufacturers were assigned to study the art of creating these new weapons, and some basic pre-industrial manufacturing capability was dedicated to these new weapons. As production increased, warriors began regularly training and using them."

"And, by war name, which commander designed the Shot-and-Charge formation using this?" Nei recognized the formation name; the warriors would all kneel into a firing line against an incoming foe, and then either charge after to hit them while their momentum was blunted, or if it was not blunted they held firm to use the sharp end of the era's pike-like staff weapons.

"Warleader Batt'leon." Giar answered automatically, slightly tripping over the archaic spelling of the war name as he pronounced it.

"First employed?"

"The Nineteenth Field Battle of the Vuurtag Valley; Third Darkmaw War."

"Good. Sit down." He turned to Creske and coughed loudly into his hand. Nei smirked; Creske's love for battle often got in the way. _It's unlikely she will really lead,_ she had long ago decided, _but if she sticks with Tsavong, she'll find her glory..._

Tsavong... well, she knew he was a warrior in the making. He had a firm grasp of tactics, and fought well. Time spent in the simulator showed his natural prowess in combat. The strength was... alluring. As was his personality; proud, resilient, making sure the weak knew they were beneath him. And he backed up his claims of superiority by defeating anyone who challenged him. Uruk and Creske had both regularly lost sparring matches with him as he played a style with a perfect mix of agility by jet pack and the full force of lorwardian strength with a single power hammer.

Yet... he did not make it clear she was beneath him, the same way he kept the others in the class well aware of his heritage and standing. Sure, they were all from relatively high families in the Lorwardian Imperium and all of them were the spawn of great warlords, but Warbeak, Tsavong's father, was easily the greatest of the lot and had personally conquered several Alliance worlds. And yet Tsavong never held that over her and the two were rather equally matched in a spar. Were they heading somewhere-

"Nei!" Orlok bellowed, "Identify the current Alliance capital world."

"I... oh frackle," she muttered as she was yanked back into the classroom from her thoughts and quickly wracked her brains for the planet name. "L... Lie... Nova..." she muttered trying to string the name together before it finished. "Lieta Novus, a world jointly settled by the Alliance powers and has become home of their civil government as a symbol of equality amongst powers."

The old instructor narrowed his eyes at her before nodding slowly, glancing between her and Tsavong briefly before nodding. "Correct. Maintain your focus; while taking a moment to let the mind wander and relax so you are sharp later is wise, you must choose the time to do so. Doing so in battle is as lethal as becoming focused upon a singular target." He turned head towards Creske and Uruk as he finished, the two glancing around awkwardly trying to understand the subtle hint towards them. "Now Borivik, which world was the first to be claimed by the Lorwardian Imperium and became the primary focus of the Third Imperium War?"

"Partha," he answered, "a nearby habitable planet with fierce fauna and was once home to the Minos sentient species, which was wiped out by the lorwardian colonists. These colonists under Warleader Genos'side eventually rebelled and were crushed in the Third Imperium War."

"Correct. Now, who was the leader of the Manufacturers on the planet who supported the Imperium during the war and denied Genos'side the required materials to wage her rebellion..."

The lesson continued well throughout the day, and Nei's mind gently wandered again as Orlok went through history, going over dates of major events, the history of major planets in the Imperium, significant individuals of history, including many of the non-combatants...

XXX

**Several Standard Hours Later**

**War'Tec Arsenal Arena**

Nei ducked as a heavy plasma bolt shot over her head and impacted the steel crate behind her and left a hole in it. Glancing over and reaching for her pistol, she leaned out of cover and fired several plasma bolts, hitting the lorwardian charging at her with a pair of power hammers. She hit his head, burning his helmet before breaking through and his head vanished in a puff of smoke from the repeated hits of her plasma pistol.

Naturally, he was not actually dead as this was a combat simulator, but the simulated body hit the floor and slid another two meters before coming to a halt.

"Good shot!" Tsavong congratulated as he grabbed another lorwardian by the arm and spun him around, igniting his jetpack to soar into the air before hurling the lorwardian into the ground where Uruk pounded him into dust with his power hammers. The poor warrior's kinetic barriers flared up from the sheer force, but they were overwhelmed by the blow.

"Thanks for disabling his shields!" Nei shouted back as she holstered the pistol to let it recharge and reached for her staff weapon, pulling it from her belt and deploying it to its full length. Creske was embroiled in a brawl with two other lorwardians with staff weapons, whirling around them and trying to claw their eyes out while Borivik was somewhere messing with his tech as always. He never really wanted to get into fights, but for some reason he came down anyways to join them.

A female lorwardian charged at her and Nei brought her staff weapon up just in time to block the twin plasma scythes mounted on her wrists, the energy charge within the staff stopping the blades from cutting into the alloyed metal it was made of. Gritting her teeth, Nei dropped down and put a hand down, using it as a pivot as she swung her legs around to trip her opponent. Though her kinetic barrier flashed up to deal with the impact of lorwardian strength, she still fell onto her back. However, she retained enough control to roll backwards once she landed and with a handspring she sprung over the low cover that Nei had taken cover behind previously.

Bringing her staff weapon around and pointing the larger end at her opponent, Nei activated it and a bolt of plasma shot towards her opponent and hit her in the chest, finishing off the barriers and the kinetic elements of the plasma not absorbed burned into her armor. Nei sprang forward, charging with the staff weapon and impaling her opponent in the chest before twisting the weapon to enlarge the hole before finally pulling it out through the chest, leaving a large and gaping hole and a (simulated) pool of blood began forming under the defeated opponent.

A plasma bolt hit Nei in the back, knocking her forward and burning her as she did not have an active kinetic barrier. Whirling around, she saw Cran smirking with a plasma pistol in her left hand and a plasma blade in her right. "What can I say, Nei," she stated with as much smugness as she could muster, "it looks like you'll always be second best. Maybe you shouldn't be playing like an ancient and skimping on the K-barriers."

"I'm not down yet," she pointed out as she forced herself to ignore the pain and brought the bloodied staff weapon around, firing a plasma bolt as Cran as Creske was taken down by one of her friends. Cran rolled to the side, dodging the bolt and firing her own pistol. Nei reacted quickly, catching the bolt with the charged end of the staff weapon and dispersing the plasma bolt before drawing her own pistol again and firing at Cran. She charged after Cran as she ducked into some of the pylons raised as cover in the simulated arena. _I'll tear Cran limb from limb in here, for every insult she's thrown..._

Nei barely reacted in time when a plasma blade came down as Cran leapt out of cover, double handing the blade. Although she raised her staff weapon in time to block, the weapon was cut into and split in two as she staggered back from the blow and the plasma blade reached the floor, smoke rising from where the impacts were made. Nei glanced around and realized she had backed into a corner from the pylon layout and the walls connecting them...

"Looks like you die in a corner..." Cran answered with a smirk as she held the blade even to Nei's chest and screamed a war cry, leaving Nei bracing herself for a good old fashioned melee brawl...

... then Cran screamed something different, as blue electricity covered her and shocked her whole body before she stumbled forward to reveal Borivik behind her, the power lines of his tech harness glowing the same color as the electricity and smoke rising from the palm of his left gauntlet.

"What're you doing?" Nei spat as Cran hit the floor, "she was mine to fight."

"Then take the kill; I was just getting her out of the way," the technologically savvy lorwardian shot back in annoyance. "Or do you want to get impaled and leave me trying to fight her off and get one of the turrets online at the same time?"

Nei grit her teeth before shaking her head. "Go play your technology games and leave the real fighters to their fighting."

"Fine." He answered before turning away as Nei grabbed her pistol and put several plasma rounds into Cran's head. No, it was not a real kill and Cran would just be dislodged from the simulation, but she would still get the credit. _Useless thinker, why does Borivik even come down here?_ Nei wondered as she carefully navigated her way through the simulated arena to one of the weapon racks to find another staff weapon to use. Borivik was pretty much doing his best to be able to walk away from war; why would he come down to a combat simulator and be part of their party? She lost interest in the topic as she heard the signs of battle and looked up to see Tsavong dueling another airborne lorwardian. The arena must have been getting thinner as she could see Uruk and Creske, or rather the remains of their simulated selves, lying in the field next to some of their fallen opponents. By her count, this left Tsavong's opponent, Tsavong himself, Borivik, and herself left in the arena. She grabbed a staff weapon and moved into a position to be ready to take the revenge shot if Tsavong lost, but she doubted that his prey would elude him...

XXX

Tsavong grunted as his jetpack took a hit from his opponents plasma pistol. The two were using similar jet packs, but his opponent was smaller and more nimble. Cran must have recruited him into her party because of that. While he was able to break his opponent's defense in melee, the nimbleness of his opponent made such a prospect difficult in mid-air.

"You certainly are a dancer," Tsavong commented as his opponent soared over another flurry of plasma bolts from his pistol as it started to overheat. He holstered it in annoyance and started trying to calculate an intercept to charge into him with a burst of speed out of the reserve fuel cell of the jetpack...

"Thanks, but let's be honest, we know how this'll end!" his opponent shouted back as he turned around with his dual wielded plasma pistols and fired a volley. Hitting the overcharge, Tsavong shot his jetpack faster than normal to avoid the volley as the shots went wide and into the distance beyond the simulator's limits.

"With your fall!" Tsavong shouted back as he noticed he had an intercept chance and hit the overdrive again, shooting towards his opponent and colliding into him as he was letting his pistols cool. The smaller lorwardian howled loudly as the both spun out of control and struggled to regain control, but Tsavong had grappled his pack and reached for the clamps...

Then he found himself spun around; his opponent was struggling to shake him off by twisting around, but Tsavong held firm even if he could not reach for the clamps. He was simply too strong for the smaller man. Smirking as an idea came to him, he disabled the power to his own jetpack and it ceased to hum, allowing his sheer muscle mass to force gravity's work as the two began to dive down.

"You maniac!" the other lorwardian shouted, "you know we're both going to crash, right?"

"You will." Tsavong smirked as he used his strength to force himself into a good position and reactivated his jetpack, hurtling them towards the ground at a higher velocity before he let go and allowed his opponent to crash into one of the pylons. The nimbler lorwardian hit, smacking into the pylon with his whole front body as he tried to pull up while Tsavong rocketed into the air again as he shifted his position so the jetpack aimed directly to the ground. Smirking as he came around and looked down on his prey, he edged his power hammer from his belt and landed back on the ground in the middle of all the simulated dead and looked at his opponent as he slid off the pylon and stumbled to his feet.

"For Lorwardia!" Tsavong shouted as he sprang towards his latest victim, hammer in hand to crush his head with a glorious finishing touch -

Then his target exploded, hit by a green beam of anti-walker plasma similar to those of a mounted defensive turret. Snarling, Tsavong turned to see Borivik smiling next to one of the arena's neutral turrets that he had taken control of.

"You _idiot_!" Tsavong shouted as he stormed towards the class' thinker. "You stole my kill!"

Borivik looked at him in surprise, clearly feigning surprise. "Y... your kill?" he stuttered out with enough surprise that it almost convinced him it was genuine. He took a step back as he saw Tsavong advancing with his power hammer.

"Hey, I didn't know you were taking a victory!" he stammered out, "I was busy trying to hack the turret-" Tsavong was bringing his hammer up for an underhanded blow to knock him off his feet when a harsh male voice shot into the arena and things began to fade...

_"Victory has been achieved by Team Thorgoggle. Simulation ending in three... two... one..."_

XXX

Borivik awoke from the simulator just in time and was still panting. Tsavong... was ready to beat him up for stealing his kill. How was he supposed to know that Tsavong was in some sort of blood duel with the guy? He was busy trying to hack the turret! As he knew from watching the vid logs of the simulator, it was a lot harder than it looked. He glanced down at the restraints of the simulator as they released and dropped down. The simulator held them on a slab, restraining them to prevent muscle spasms from reacting to the injuries sustained in the simulator too roughly. They also happened to be the same restraint models used to hold down lorwardian prisoners deemed too dangerous to allow to batter a combat dummy to vent their blood haze.

As he stumbled down onto his feet, he walked out of the room where he was restrained and found Creske, Uruk, and Giar all sitting down in the waiting room as they had been knocked out earlier. Tsavong and Nei came out shortly after, both glaring at him.

"Now, to deal with that..."

"Tsavong, wait," Giar cut in, standing up and stepping between the two before Tsavong attacked. "You know how focus intensive hacking is. It's quite possible that he was preparing the turret in the event you and Nei fell to that guy and had to fight him alone, and the turrets auto-lock."

"So you say." Tsavong growled, "but he still stole my kill."

"I don't get credit for it, you know," Borivik pointed out, hoping this would calm Tsavong down. He respected Tsavong as a warrior and a leader, but he still had a serious temper to him that always turned him away. "Turret kills aren't counted in the team kill count. That's why so few people use them anyways."

In hindsight, Borivik realized later, Tsavong's warrior's honor was too much and the slugging he took to the face was much milder than a team kill in the simulator. Fortunately, the punch to the face caught his kinetic barriers, minimizing the worst of the blow. _Points for technology,_ Borivik later decided when he considered the situation when he was back home in his room (the cluttered mess of various gadgets that it was) and began the task of planning his battle for Orlok's simulated assaults. _Oh, good,_ he thought as he looked at his order of battle. _Tech support, and more than what you'd normally see..._

XXX

**Warbeak's Estate**

"So, Nei, what do you think of Borivik, the useless thinker?" Tsavong asked bitterly, still sore over the kill steal.

"Well, assuming we all stay together, we can just stick him in the ship's engineering bay, leave him there, and he won't complain." Nei answered honestly as she and Tsavong were sitting next to each other in the room next to the estate's rather sizable firing range. "He's less eager to fight than most of us."

"Well, we are all less eager for war than you," Tsavong said with a smirk as he put a hand on her chin. "I've never seen someone with the kind of fire you have. The eagerness for war..."

Nei's cheeks heated up at the compliments as she glanced down awkwardly. Sure, they were all good warriors, but what made her special enough to get Tsavong's attention? Warbeak was one of the higher ranking warlords, on the verge of becoming a Greater Warlord in the Imperium. Sure, her father was a warlord too, but with a significantly smaller pull and the planets under his sway were more remote than those under Warbeak's. He did not even have an estate on Lorwardia; she was living as a ward with Warbeak because Warbeak wanted to repay Warbrin'ger for reinforcing him in a difficult battle that he had no business in supporting.

"Tsavong!" she heard someone bellow from the hallway, cutting them off. "I know you two are friends, but you have battles to plan. Get to it!"

"Yes, father," Tsavong answered as he pulled his hand away and reached for the datapad. "Let's start looking. I'm looking at taking four Mothership Cruisers, twenty five Thannix starfighters, ten Elcor starbombers, and a few battalions of warriors with the boarding gunships to go with them to a system with one major colony site. I've got a few Strike Walkers as well, looking at the Oh-oh-Bee..."

Nei nodded as he plugged the datapad into a nearby display and it showed both the order of battle and information on the unidentified planet, labeled 'Target'. _Orlok never was subtle in his naming,_ Nei noted given each planet in the system her assignment was essentially named 'Target' then a number based on position from the system's binary suns. "Looks like some decent defenses too; two asuran Shadow Cruisers, two Ionic Destroyers, and six squadrons from a nearby military space station."

Tsavong nodded. "Yes, the space fight will be a challenge. A shame I'm not fighting the caladanians; boarding a Battlestar would be a far better solution to the space part than boarding a space station built to asuran size."

"I'd just blow it up and get space superiority first. You might even catch a few starfighters while they're down."

"Agreed. I'm going to take a look at doing some pre-battle strikes before hitting with the main hammer, but that's something to talk about later." He leaned over the datapad and minimized it. "Go ahead and plug yours in, let's see what you have."

"A Conquest Dreadnaught, two Mothership Cruisers, thirty Thannix starfighters, and about two battalions of warriors with boarding gunships for them. The warriors and fighters are evenly split on the two cruisers while the Dreadnaught is carrying nothing." Nei explained as she plugged it in. "I'm against a mixed caladanian/asuran force, varying based on the planet. I'm guessing my goal is to spread out my destruction as much as possible."

"That Dreadnaught will rip the Battlestar apart when it shows up, and the few caladanian Assault Frigates in the area will be easy to deal with." Tsavong commented as he looked at the display. "I'd probably try to keep it ready to jump in when it shows up... just need to prevent the caladanians from deploying torpedo bombers out of the Battlestar. Those are the real threat in this battle by numbers and the persistence of their torpedo runs. Take out the Battlestar's hanger before it deploys, and you get rid of the real threat."

She nodded; "That was my line of thought as well. Of course, I'll need to keep the Thannix squadrons with the attacking groups since there's local starfighter defenses on each planet with their own torpedo bombers."

"Yes... Orlok seems to have given us both challenges. You have more than enough firepower for any target even if you split, but that Battlestar makes splitting up risky and the squadrons could cause a problem if they deploy in full. My firepower is less than yours, but I'm also dealing with one very fortified position and I do not have the biggest ships to simply roll over it."

"Well, let's start planning. You want to do yours first, or mine?"

"Let's come up with some ideas, then compare them after." Tsavong suggested. "I might not like the Immortal's habit of trying to make us feel outmoded in our glory, but he has a plan to teach us strategy and tactics. Thirty minutes?"

"Sounds like a battle plan." Nei answered as Tsavong unplugged his datapad and moved to the opposite end of the room and the table there as the two worked...

XXX

**End Chapter**

Author's Notes:

_- The real thing about the lorwardians is that I did not want them to be the generic proud warrior race guys and gals. I wanted them as more than Spartans, Conquistadors, and Romans IN SPACE! After all, the Spartan system was great for hoplites and spears, but it doesn't really work in the sci-fi era no matter how good you are with physical prowess. To quote the Urdnot mechanic from Mass Effect 2; "How do you think those fools make it into the field to kill each other? Who do you think keeps the weapons working? Without me, there is no battle, just slaughter." That's what really got me thinking about developing the lorwardians Manufacturer and Thinker castes. I mean, you'd have to be particularly arrogant or stupid, I don't know which, to leave building your technology to slave labor, especially important things like starships. I mean, mining raw materials and stamping out armor plates is one thing; building your starships is another._

_- As to the class; I really wanted there to be more than these two. No one should deny that Warmonga and Warhok are badasses. But even those two, even assuming they're lorwardian analogs to humans of Kim's level of natural ability, are not going to be taking on planets single handedly. Besides, more characters means more ways to explore these two by their interactions with them. And hey, the punny names when they all get their war names were fun to make._

_- With the lorwardians, some parts of equipment that I identify and use are from canon. For example, the Strike Walkers are what were deployed during_ "Graduation"_. The ones on Earth, however, were Hunter variant and sacrificed shields for speed and the capture lasers used to catch Ron and Mr. Dr. Possible. The Mothership Cruiser is similar to Warhok's ship, with some slight model differences and custom modifications, like the beam used to capture Kim and (presumably) Drakken. Other parts of equipment I'm making up, such as their starfighter craft and their big dreadnaughts. _

_- Thank you to Darev and AngelicInkLing for their reviews. It is good to get this fic up and going. As they mentioned in the reviews, I've done a lot of prep work. I've put together a document for each alien species, going over them and generally explaining how they work. Nothing of import on those documents that is plot relevant will be unexplained here, but I can send it to those who want it. Some mild spoilers on them, but I think things are a foregone conclusion with the fact Warhok and Warmonga are both present at Graduation._


	3. Chapter 3 - Training: Simulated Warfare

_"The lorwardians use a lot of automation for their vehicles. Makes sense, really; they're a warrior culture, they usually want to be in there feeling the blood, not sitting on deck four calibrating drive cores. This is even more pronounced in space where their larger vessels are mostly automated. That said, they still have crew, but since their hunters often go off on their own they needed ships that could work without a crew. So, Explorer Frigates and Mothership Cruisers are able to work with just one lorwardian, though the latter is usually crewed with at least four, not counting starfighter or ground compliments and the needed support officers. The asura could easily do a similar scale for crews with all their constructs, but they keep adding so many gizmos and gadgets to their ships that automation won't work."_

- Captain Solana (Caladanian Assault Frigate _Ice Nine_), speaking on the lorwardian navy

XXX

**The Next Day**

"Back off," Borivik shot back as he activated his tech gauntlet and charged it up for a neural shock. The three men advancing on him smirked at each other, the leader of which was a young but scarred lorwardian brawler.

"Aw, da wee bitty techie thinks a little light is going to scare us!" the leading bully mocked as he looked at the charged tech device before laughing it off. Borivik instantly started calculating how much charge he would need to split. But he was pointing it at him; sure, he could fire it off without reaching for his wrist but charging the next blasts would call for that...

Absorbed in his attempt at tactical analysis, the leader reached out for his arm and grabbed him by the harness. Borivik released the charge, shocking him and causing him to gurgle in pain as he was electrocuted with a lower voltage shock, but the other two continued the grab by getting his legs and hurling him into a nearby dumpster.

"Wow, now I understand why your parents wasted so much money trying to cover up their little embarrassment. How did actually decent hunters give birth to a walking fishbone like you?"

"Ah... frackle..." Borivik sighed as he could feel the blood haze kicking in as his body's adrenaline started to overproduce for the fight... and the fact that the connection between the harness and the gauntlets was broken from where he was grabbed. The three bullies were walking closer when someone stepped in.

"Cowards, why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Borivik could not identify who it was. His ears were still ringing from the impact as he pushed himself up and found himself looking at Tsavong, who had stepped between him and the bullies.

"Why do you care?" the lead one asked, "All I see in him is extra baggage for your class."

"And I see a couple spineless whelps who have so far failed to earn a war name. Unless you want to try it with me..." Tsavong cracked his knuckles, staring at them challengingly.

The three looked at each other before grinning as they found a good fight. And they charged headlong into it. Tsavong grabbed the leader's hand and flung him around, sending him flying into the second bully before he sidestepped the third one and kicked him into the wall. As they began pushing themselves up he folded his arms at them. The leader dropped his hand to the plasma sword hilt on his belt, but he found himself on the receiving end of Tsavong's boot and his blood spilled on the pavement. The bully he had been hurled into and the one thrown into the wall looked at each other, realized they were in over their heads, and scrammed. Borivik stared at Tsavong as he turned towards him.

"Good job standing up to those cowards, though you should probably carry a staff weapon or power hammer next time, considering what happened to the harness. I won't always be there."

"I know," Borivik answered, rubbing the back of his neck. "This isn't a combat harness anyways. It'd be located under combat armor if I was going into a warzone..."

Tsavong shrugged. "You still showed more guts than they did. But the next time we're at War'Tec, you're going out back and doing target practice."

"My adrenaline levels are plenty high, thank you..." Borivik answered shakily before sighing as he saw the narrowing stare in Tsavong's yellow eyes. "Alright, fine, I'll get some pistol practice in and start working on a punch blade for my gauntlet or something."

Tsavong nodded. "I'll see you at class, then..."

"Right. Class." Borivik shivered. Yeah... that was going to go well. He was fairly solid on his battle plan, assuming that the tech kept pace.

XXX

**Orlok the Immortal's Estate**

"As it happens, Borivik, your plan was sound but relied too much on your tech keeping pace with the asura." Orlok stated as he looked at the techie. "If you lead, you must remember that while the few mentalists in the field tend to be adept techs, the asura are far more skilled in general and have many more technicians. This is why your attempts to use them to hack and turn their Juggernaut constructs against them failed. Nei, state the nature of asuran constructs."

Nei rose. "Asuran constructs vary between technological robotics and magically fueled golems, sometimes combining the two. They are only vulnerable to being hacked if of a technological origin."

"What is the best method of disabling them en masse?"

"Targeting control centers. While asuran field engineers and technomancers are capable of controlling a few of them, to employ them in any significant numbers they must build some sort of control center to coordinate them and issue out large scale commands." She inhaled, considering that looking for those was probably something she should have done if she ended up that far. "Destroying these results in constructs shutting down or acting absentmindedly, leaving them vulnerable to easy destruction until one of the above two asuran tech specialists take control... if they have the space to command them on their on-hand equipment. Some constructs have their own AI, but it is not effective without control."

"Correct, sit down." Nei did so. Borivik, Creske, and Giar had gone first, and were all beaten. Borivik because he relied too much on the mentalist technology specialists in his war party to deal with the asuran technology edge rather than the power of lorwardian strength, and Giar because he relied too much on his squadrons softening up the ground targets and by the time he sent in the ground forces the Alliance's reinforcements showed up. Reinforcements showing up in the form of a caladanian Battlestar deploying its full complement of starfighter and starbomber craft, one hundred and twenty, on his flank.

Creske, meanwhile, was still bleeding from the broken nose she received by her failure as her 'strategy' had been overkill with everything space capable on a meriur Helios capital ship defending the planet, leaving the meriur Oranos starfighters and Ares starbombers free to wreak havoc on her own forces, and then on the ground she drove right for the base and left her flanks exposed, which the meriur had taken full advantage of. The lorwardian weakness to magic and the meriur's heavy use of it did not help matters at all.

Orlok walked back to the console and entered in the next plan. "Nei, your battle plan is up next."

She inhaled, hoping her plan worked as the simulation powered up. She had four possible targets; two asuran, two caladanian. These planets were Target I, II, III, and IV respectively. Target III and IV had two caladanian Assault Frigates in orbit, while the asuran colonies had no space defenses but expanded ground defenses, including extra fighter/bomber squadrons.

"Lot of targets, lucky girl..." Uruk muttered bitterly.

"And not enough to hit them all at once, so I wouldn't call that luck," Giar countered.

"You _are_ supposed to be taking notes." Orlok cut in, narrowing his eyes at the two students as he put his cybernetically encased hands on the table. The two shut up as the simulation began playing.

Over Target III, the Dreadnaught came out of FTL and it opened fire with its twin spinal plasma cannons at the caladanian vessels. The two spherical bursts of plasma hurtled towards the first frigate, the first blow hitting and decimating its shields while the second blow punched through the center of the frigate and left it dead in vacuum. The other frigate came around while the ten Thannix fighters based on the Dreadnaught were deployed and hung back as the Dreadnaught moved to bring its broadside turrets into play while the spinal guns recharged. The Assault Frigate moved to stay clear of the spinal guns and went to the side, staying at maximum range and avoiding taking the bait and coming closer.

Caladanian ground squadrons began to scramble, but it would take time for them to get into orbit and would not be up in time to help the frigate as the Dreadnaught moved closer and opened fire with its broadside heavy turrets, bolts of plasma shooting towards the caladanian vessel as it returned fire, a rainbow of red, green, blue, and purple energy bolts coming from the smaller vessel and directed towards the fighter screen, which moved out of the way and stayed behind their home vessel to let it take the anti-fighter oriented heat. Though the shields were weakened, the caladanian frigate eventually exploded under the intense barrage and the Thannix fighters moved to screen the Dreadnaught from the three incoming squadrons as it moved into an orbital bombardment position.

"So much for the caladanian fleet," Creske commented. "They really should of put more than frigates in orbit."

"Yeah, the fighters aren't in play yet." Giar pointed out. "Dreadnaughts have pretty poor point defense and caladanians are only behind the meriur in pilot quality because the meriur spend years training their pilots. I'm not sure leaving that Dreadnaught with only ten fighters is going to work..."

"Just watch," Nei commented as she turned her focus to what was happening elsewhere in the simulated star system.

Meanwhile at Target IV, the two Mothership Cruisers arrived and fired their spinal cannons at the caladanian vessels, one each. The frigates took the hits and lost shields, but they were still in the fight as they turned towards the incoming ships. The three ground based squadrons began scrambling, but again they would get into orbit too late. The Mothership Cruisers did not scramble their fighters and instead moved in right for the kill, each one going for a single Assault Frigate and bringing them down with their broadside batteries. The caladanian Dragonfly squadrons were incoming, but the Cruisers did not scramble their onboard fighters and instead fired a brief barrage towards the surface from where they were and began moving out of the gravity well that the Assault Frigates had remained within.

The barrage was negligible as the colony had raised their shield generators in time and the shots not stopped by it harmlessly hit unsettled territory. The caladanian bombers caught up and fired azure charged torpedoes, six pairs at each Cruiser, which hit the shields and drained the lorwardian vessels of their non-armor protection as the fighters put in pocket marks with their energy cannons, and two of the torpedo bombers and one fighter were destroyed by the defensive cannons on the cruisers before they jumped into FTL with nothing more than token damage to the rear end turrets.

As the Dreadnaught entered orbital bombardment range back at Target III, its ten fighter escort was engaged trying to stop the caladanian fighters from making torpedo runs on the Dreadnaught as its point defense was very weak. It took the inbound torpedoes with its shields, but the shields were dropping dangerously fast and only a fourth of the torpedo bombers were taken down, in part due to the screening of the caladanian fighters keeping the lorwardian ones from doing their job and forcing them to deal with them. The Dreadnaught fired its spinal guns down on the shielded colony base, putting the hurt on the shield and dropping it by about 10%, which slowly started climbing back up as the shields cycled and recharged. Yet no Boarding Gunships launched to bear lorwardian warriors down to the planet while the fighters were engaged so they could disable the shield by landing outside and thrusting into the caladanian colony. Nei had a different plan for them in mind...

"That's it?" Uruk commented. "Where's the warriors landing to crush the birds in their nests? All I've seen is space dancing."

"Be patient," Tsavong answered as Nei grit her teeth in anticipation. _Come on, where's the Battlestar, where's the Battlestar..._

Uruk backed off, but Borivik cut in. "I'm sure there's a plan, but he does have a point: boots have to be on the ground eventually. You can't win a war without the ground forces, 'cause if you can't hold a planet, fleets wither and die as their maintenance demands can't be met."

Orlok nodded approvingly, "Correct, Borivik. But as Tsavong said, be patient."

The two Mothership Cruisers sent to Target IV came out of FTL after a few minutes, just in time to launch their fighters as the caladanians had worn down the Dreadnaught's screen to two fighters and there were still six active torpedo bombers and three active fighters from the vicious dog fighting. The Dreadnaught was showing signs of wear and tear, missing several broadside turrets and one of the two spinal cannons was damaged and offline for a field repair after taking an emerald charged torpedo to the barrel, the plasma-like high explosive burst melting parts of the barrel. The two guns might of been independent, but they slowed down the rate of fire on the other one just to keep heat down with the other gun as they were next to each other. The twenty Thannix Fighters from the Mothership Cruisers shot towards the Dreadnaught and caught the caladanian pilots in a pincer, finishing them off but not before the Dreadnaught lost a shield generator and its last two fighters were lost. The Dreadnaught still could recharge its shields, but it would take longer and their maximum capacity would be greatly reduced.

Then the vessel dropped out of FTL, a caladanian Battlestar. A hybrid of battleship and carrier, caladanian Battlestars were infamous for their large capacity of starfighters. On the battleship side, it boasted a large array of cannons similar to those on Assault Frigates for closer point defense, and three scaled up heavy turrets on each side meant to take on other capital ships. On the carrier side where it gained most of its combat power, up to one hundred and twenty starfighters could be carried and subsequently deployed. And thanks to its large hanger, it could launch two full squadrons at a time rather than the normal half squadron deployments from most vessels of similar size. However, this large dorsal hanger was also the weak spot of the ship as two large sections of the hull began moving out of the way and two squadrons of fighters launched.

This was when Nei's plan went into action. Five Boarding Gunships from each ship launched and shot towards the Battlestar as the Dreadnaught and Cruiser fired their operational spinal cannons towards the exposed hanger. The caladanian fighters broke out of the way and got clear before the plasma rounds crashed into their squadrons and the next two squadrons were caught as three balls of plasma crashed into the shields. The shields held at low remaining capacity, but some of the launching torpedo bombers were destroyed as they flew into the spinal shots, around a quarter of the launched fighters.

While the Thannix Fighters dueled the launched caladanian fighters, the Mothership Cruisers moved into position to screen the Dreadnaught from the incoming torpedo bombers with their point defense guns and stopped firing on the Battlestar. They stopped because the gunships were bearing down on the Battlestar shot past the dogfight and were at risk of friendly fire with their current trajectory, though they had a few fighters on their tail trying to take them down with energy cannons. The concussion missiles from the caladanian fighters managed to destroy two of the gunships, but before the fighters going for the gunships could do more damage their lorwardian counterparts cut in and took them down. The Battlestar's hanger was hammered by the Boarding Gunships as they approached the larger vessel and began taking fire from the rapid fire and flak like cannons.

"Wait, she's going to board it?" Creske commented in surprise. "Huh. I guess that works, but why bother? You've got big guns to blast it."

"Interdicting starfighter launch." Nei retorted. "They could just turn the ship if they wanted to keep launching while under heavy fire."

Four more gunships were taken down by the point defenses and before they could make their boarding effort and the dorsal hanger closed following the third pair of launched squadrons, which were hammered by the twin plasma cannons of the gunships as they were firing to ensure that there was a hole in the shield coverage over the hanger area. In range and with a sufficient hole ripped open in the shield coverage, they fired their technically secondary delivery mechanism: Boarding Torpedoes. These escape pod like 'vehicles' were designed to insert individual lorwardian warriors directly into a naval vessel for interior combat. Several torpedoes were caught in the hailstorm of point defenses, but most of them got through and the torpedoes bored into the dorsal hanger, eventually forcing their way through and dropping their warrior off while the gunships landed on the closed hanger doors and used their primary boarding mechanism to deploy the rest of the boarding parties.

The drill tips on the gunships were diamond hard, and slowly but surely created new holes in the hanger doors even as some gunships were disabled by the turrets pushed to their safety range trying to blow off the gunships. A few caladanian marines used a hatch to try and fire shoulder mounted particle cannons to burn the gunships off, but they lacked enough power and the warriors in the disabled gunships simply put on their breather masks and got out to fight the marines on the ship itself while the operational gunships dropped more warriors into the dorsal hanger. Vacuum, after all, was still a danger but the lorwardian biology could handle being exposed for a short amount of time and their armor was sealed enough to give them a couple minutes to kill the caladanians.

"Impressive." Tsavong said as he watched the battle turning in favor of the lorwardians, staring in awe while the rest of Nei's ground forces were deployed to the planet by the gunships not sent after the Battlestar and began engaging the caladanian ground forces. "You've just neutered their space fleet and left the asuran bases without reinforcement against your later assaults."

"Thank you, Tsavong." Nei answered with a smile.

"I still say you should of just shot the Battlestar with the big guns and went to ground with the rest." Creske dourly noted, folding her arms in a near pout.

Although Nei's fighters were being worn down by the caladanian pilots and the torpedo bombers had crippled one of her cruisers, she really had dealt with the biggest hurdle in winning here. Though it took time, her boarding parties eventually won and they took control of the Battlestar. However, before they could begin attempting to take control of it to turn against the caladanians a team of surviving caladanian marines managed to go extravehicular and blew the ships engines with emerald-cored detonation charges, which caused a series of explosions throughout the vessel and left the ship disabled, broken beyond repair, and caused considerable casualties. The surviving lorwardian warriors in the boarding party, including the team that was not able to reach the caladanian marines in time, finished off the surviving caladanians and left on the remaining gunships.

"Note the ground battle." Orlok cut in as it developed in the meanwhile, "The planetary fight is less in your favor. Your strategy was well considered, and bold... very bold." Nei was not sure, but she almost thought there was a hint of something in the Warlord's voice... pride? Awe? _Maybe he's impressed at my ability to be clever..._ she thought as she soaked up the glory of the downed Battlestar and disabled caladanian space assets.

Yet, she could not argue that he was correct about the ground battle. The caladanian infantry were putting up a good fight, focusing their particle rifles on lorwardian infantry for great effect. These direct energy weapons maintained constant beams of energy, which grew stronger the longer that they were activated in part due to charge building within the crystals used to fuel the rifles, the same type which gave the caladanians their powers. And because of this, caladanians were able to channel their powers through the rifles, as they could with all their technology. Though their large space vessels used a variety of crystal power cells to create a rainbow of death that hit with various types at once, infantry could not be so choosy as they were one individual.

The azure caladanians, besides using their strength on-par with lorwardians to defend against storming lorwardian warriors, sometimes sacrificed the built up power in their rifles to fire off concussive blasts which could knock a lorwardian flat on their back just with impact. Those of emerald powers did the same, but instead of a concussive shot they fired a fireball-like burst of green plasma which melted armor and instead of super strength they sometimes fired small shots of plasma from their hands or used it to charge up a melee attack. Ruby caladanians had an increased charge rate thanks to the nature of their powers, and the amethyst caladanians were left with nothing more than rifles that sized up and down with them through the limited size range they had. That said, the amethyst caladanians were also using their limited size shifting to get into places their brethren could not and were being a guerilla pain in the neck with ambushes and flanking maneuvers even before they got into the actual colony base.

"The caladanians are tough, but even they can only stop lorwardian strength for so long." Tsavong said as he watched the ground forces taking the win even with the difficulty they had.

"Honestly, these sims seem to stack the favor in the Alliance camp," Uruk snorted. "I mean, they could win just with a math error in the programming."

"If you knew anything about computer programs, you'd realize that those problems would lie in whoever built the program, not the program itself." Borivik shot back defensively. "Besides, I'd like to see you run the calculations of how much force is being applied or how much charge is lost from a kinetic barrier blocking a staff weapon swing."

Uruk simply grunted indifferently as they turned their attention back to the projector. In the end, Target III fell and was set on fire and looted before the lorwardians packed up on transports and left. The Dreadnaught and remaining Mothership Cruiser, with their spinal cannons patched up after the last scrambled caladanian fighter was destroyed and while waiting for the ground operation to disable the shields. Once the shields were down and everyone back on board, the ships fired several volleys into the remains of the colony base to destroy the survivors and leave nothing behind before they moved on to Target IV. The few remaining Thannix fighters, only five, hung in orbit with the ships while they pounded the airbase from orbit before the caladanians could scramble their squadrons, and the few fighters that got off the ground were pounced on by the Thannix fighters as they came up. Nei smirked, expecting to rack up another planet when six squadrons of fighters dropped out of short range FTL on her flank.

"Oh frackle..." she said with a mix of disappointment, surprise, and embarrassment as the asuran fighters and torpedo bombers began their attack. Though the asuran variants of the same starfighter design the caladanians used were smaller, they were no less lethal and each fighter had been upgraded in some minor way, from the mundane things like improved barriers or a higher amount of power for when they set energy cannons to maximum recharge all the way to new warhead types and tertiary weapons like miniaturized asuran conductor coils. The asuran squadrons made short work of the remaining lorwardian fighters and pounded the ships into submission, taking out the engines before they could escape the gravity of the planet.

The Boarding Gunships, following Nei's 'if all goes to hell and no escape' contingency, shot towards the planet and dropped warriors to the ground by boarding torpedo as they entered range of the landing zone, harried by the asuran pilots, and landed to get those not in boarding torpedoes onto the ground. Few of them managed to do so, and those that did were shot down taking off before they could engage the asuran pilots or try to strafe the caladanian defenders. The battle ended fast and with Nei's defeat as they were simply outmaneuvered, outnumbered, and the caladanians had multiple of their older but still serviceable Bluejay Main Battle Mechs on the field. The simulation ended with a casualty count.

"All in all, one of the more impressive showings on this scenario that I have seen." Orlok said calmly. "And one of the few that took down the Battlestar... the only one which did so in that method. I would need to check the records, but I believe this is simulation also had some of the most, if not the most, damage done to the defenders."

"Thank you, Warlord." Nei answered, but she was still worried.

"Can you identify your primary mistake?" Orlok asked as the display zoomed out to show the general flow of the battle in the system, showing the FTL jumps and engagement locations. Nei could now see that the asuran squadrons had gone into FTL when her forces returned to Target IV. Having already been put on alert by the attacks elsewhere, it was trivial for the asura to send all but two squadrons, one left behind at each planet as a backup defense, to hit her while her vessels battered down Target IV from orbit. They met up at Target II, which was closest, and then jumped straight into short range FTL.

"I left the asura untouched, leaving them free to take the initiative and counterattack without fear of retaliation, and did not plan for that." Nei answered as Orlok walked over, "I was focused on the caladanians in an effort to draw out the Battlestar and deal with the superior fleet assets that I ignored the asura and planned that they would turtle up in fear. But when it was clear that Target IV needed help and that the extent of the lorwardian forces in the area were already in play, they gambled to wipe out the unit. By this point, my own space forces were too bled out to fight both at once."

"Do you believe you could have taken either planet after dealing with Target III and the Battlestar had you planned for such?"

Nei considered, then shook her head. "No, too many fighters and not enough point defense left on the Mothership Cruisers or Thannix Starfighters to counter that many."

"Good," Orlok said slowly with an approving nod before hitting her in the stomach. "While your ignorance of the asuran factor is a problem, you showed better judgment than most and admitted your mistake. Your assumptions would have been reasonable, but what you did not do was give the asura reason to fear." He paused. "However, if you had instead send the two cruisers to do a hit-and-jump raid in passing, what could have happened? Uruk, stand and answer."

Nei sat down and looked towards the brutish lorwardian as he rose. "Uh... the Battlestar might of jumped the Dreadnaught?"

"Correct." Orlok answered. "Had the Battlestar arrived as it did, it would have shown up and had time to deposit at least two squadrons before the Mothership Cruisers returned to the Dreadnaught, which in this battle became the bait to lure the Battlestar into play. The battle in space would be far closer, and depending on how many gunships were sent in, or which ones, things very well may have become a total defeat or a victory over both caladanian planets. Now, before we do your operation, Tsavong, all of you take your lunch break. No delays in returning."

Everyone pushed themselves up and grabbed what they needed while leaving most of their class material behind.

XXX

**Spar'Tan's Blood and Tankard Tavern**

Sure, they had a brawl there a few days ago, but brawls happened every other day, but if Spar'Tan had kicked out everyone who started or got involved in a fight in his tavern, he would be out of business.

That said, he always made it clear he did not approve of it being done in the bar itself. The slow service, Nei decided, was one way he showed his annoyance. Still, it was close to Orlok's estate and the food was well priced.

"So," she asked, "why were you and Borivik late this morning?"

"Oh, nothing." Tsavong answered with a shrug. "Brakk and his goons were picking a fight with Borivik."

She snorted. "Everyone else too strong for them?"

"Pretty much."

"Well, I suppose we'll need some fighters as nuke bait. Not everyone's worthy for glory."

"They would serve well once they've learned their place." Tsavong finished his drink off and leaned back in the chair. "So, what'd you think of the others so far? With their simulations."

"Borivik was too tech reliant, rather than counting on actual strength." Nei answered. "And the less said about Creske, the better."

He grunted an acknowledgement. "Yes, that was an... embarrassing battle. Why she is so kill focused, I do not know."

"You know most of us look for a fight, Tsavong? And would go for the most glorious kill around?"

"Sure, but you would not throw caution to the wind," he countered with a slight smile. "In your ferocity, you retain wisdom to watch the other foes. It's quite the... honor to know a fellow lorwardian with that kind of sense in their battles."

"I..." she paused, glancing around awkwardly as she recognized he was _flirting_. Again, she wondered what made her so special considering his family had a longer chain of command than hers. "Thank you?"

"You're welcome, Nei. I wondered how I should put this, but..."

Whatever he was going to say, however, was interrupted by Borivik. "Sorry to interrupt, guys, but we need to get going."

Nei almost laughed at the look on Tsavong's face as he was parried. After a moment of processing, Tsavong grit his teeth and stared at the smaller lorwardian. "Uh, this a bad time?" he asked before getting a punch in the chest. "Oof! Yeah... bad timing..." Borivik held his chest as he limped off. Tsavong turned to her and sighed.

"Come on," Nei said as she got up. They had already paid. "You can tell me later."

XX

**Shortly After**

**Orlok the Immortal's Estate**

Back in the class, Tsavong leaned forward as he watched the projector and the battle began. He had to admit, he was jealous of Nei even a standard hour and a half later. Her plan had gone better than expected as she anticipated to not have enough power left to hit Target IV. In that case, her plan would have been to just retreat with damage done and resources salvaged if they had too few warriors left. And she fought a foe whose ships were actually rather vulnerable to boarding without being softened up by repeated attacks like the asuran vessels. The asura, unlike the caladanians who completely forwent spinal cannons as 'too many eggs in one nest', were all about spinal cannons and all of their warships were built around one or more cannons. Sure, their space vessels were inferior to the Mothership Cruiser, but their spinal cannons were still dangerous and the asura modified the ships enough that it was not uncommon for them to punch above their weight. Or, more often, the prototype systems backfired.

Tsavong's fleet group dropped out of FTL and approached their destination, the planet designated 'Target' and its orbiting defenses. Two asuran Ionic Destroyers, anti-capital ship vessels that took the idea of a mech destroyer and applied it to naval combat using ion cannons to breach shields and shut systems down if the target survived. Although a glancing hit would only cause small system overloads from the additional charged particles, ideal for stripping shields, direct hits were another story as impact of the ionized particles would burn through like any other energy cannons, and still caused overload in electronic systems. The two Shadow Cruisers activated their limited cloaking tech and began to attempt flanking maneuvers while the Ionic Destroyers powered up their ion cannons and targeted the nearest Mothership Cruiser.

_Shame that I was not able to plan a pre-invasion raid,_ he thought as the initial volley of spinal fire was exchanged between the two asuran and four lorwardian vessels. One lorwardian cruiser lost shields and its main gun and engines were disabled by the side effects of the asuran cannons, but the asuran ships lost shields from being focused on while the third functioning lorwardian vessel fired on the space station, targeting the hanger bay while Thannix fighters formed up. The asuran Shadow Cruisers dropped out of cloaking. By the timing and how out of position they were in their flanking attempt, it was a failure of the cloaking devices rather than actually dropping them to attack.

"Hah, that's what they get for trying to cloak like cowards." Uruk commented loudly as he watched the asuran vessels try to rectify their mistake as the Elcor Starbombers lined up towards them and the broadside batteries on the lorwardian ships that faced them opened fire. The asuran shields, weakened from the active cloaking device, were unable to recharge as they were hit by the initial barrage.

"Not true stealth, of course." Borivik pointed out casually. "The reactors on those ships are a lot larger than what you'd see in an asuran vessel of that size. And even then, that stealth is just being see-through, they aren't actually invisible. Like looking at a ghost from one of those old stories."

"You going to bore us with tech?" Creske shot back in annoyance.

"No, I'm just making a point. Those asuran stealth generators aren't real cloaking."

"Enough," Orlok cut in. "Though correct, Borivik, this discussion of technology is best suited for another time."

In spite of the initial difficulties, the asura got their licks in as fighters scrambled. The lorwardian pilots engaged them in dogfights, working to overwhelm each launched squadron before they could be reinforced. It was a risk, as their cruiser support had to deal with the large asuran ships, but lorwardian pilots were used to being in unfavorable odds, in part mostly due to demographics. One of the asuran destroyers began to break as it was pounded by spinal cannon fire, though the cruiser which lost its main gun earlier was also failing and launching its gunship compliment. The rest of the gunships from the other cruisers launched and moved back to stay out of the fight, preserving them from death at the hands of their ship being destroyed but leaving them open to being hit by the Alliance's fighter squadrons if they could get past the lorwardian fighter screen.

The lorwardian bombers had begun their run, sets of four concussion missiles and a plasma torpedo from each streaking towards the asuran cruiser they had targeted. The cruisers' smaller turrets were firing at them, intercepting some of the missile barrage and catching a few of the bombers as their spinal guns focused on the larger lorwardian vessels, but the targeted cruiser was crippled by the barrage as whatever shields they had left were bled out by the concussion missiles and the plasma torpedoes blew out most of the broadside turrets and destroyed the main gun. The bombers turned towards the other Cruiser and repeated, taking more losses but successfully crippling that starship as well before pulling out to allow the remaining Mothership Cruisers to finish the job.

"So much for the vaunted asuran fleet," Nei said. "Now you just need to deal with the fighters and space station."

"Unfortunately, the fighters are having problems." Giar pointed out as he pointed towards the fighter battle in the simulator. He sighed, "Sheer numbers."

And he was right; the fighter battle was going poorly. Although the lorwardian pilots had pounced on the asuran squadrons and their initial launches were interrupted by spinal cannon fire towards the station, the asura had managed to scramble the rest of their fighters and torpedo bombers. Half of the lorwardian fighters were gone, and while the asura suffered a similar fate having lost most of their first three fighter squadrons, they still had two fully operational squadrons of torpedo bombers running for the lorwardian cruisers, reduced to two ships from the fire they had taken from their asuran counterparts and long range fire from the space station, though the asura had lost both of their Ionic Destroyers and only one of the two crippled Shadow Cruisers were still operational, albeit barely. The two surviving cruisers moved to bring around their anti-fighter turrets.

"And... now!" Tsavong said as if he was on the deck commanding, mostly out of building tension from watching the battle evolve as the time to spring his trap came. The Boarding Gunships made their move. Flying towards the lorwardian ships to meet the asuran bombers, they came in above and below the defensive fire from the Mothership Cruisers to catch the bombers in a pincer. The bombers fired their torpedoes at maximum range desperately as they came under the pincer assault, but the combined firepower had caught them in the vice and half of the bombers went down before they could begin evasive maneuvers or get more than one shot off.

"Well played," Giar commented. "Not a lot of people remember that a good pilot in a transport can still be a threat." He received odd looks from Uruk and Creske and hastily added, "Not that most pilots would, but still, you get surprised if you aren't careful."

Meanwhile, the lorwardian bombers joined the gunships and the cruisers, damaged from the torpedo run taking advantage of depleted shields but mostly operational, moved towards the space station and the fighter fur ball while the gunships began going to ground. With the asuran space assets hamstrung and the squadrons of both sides mutually exhausted, the space station opened fire with its array of anti-fighter, heavy, and missile based turrets as the lorwardian craft entered range. Although most space stations were heavily armed and armored and could hit larger ships coming in at comparable ranges, most lacked spinal cannon related weapons unless they were built around a single set because turning them was the real challenge as it called for turning the entire space station. That said, taking out a space station was still a tough task as the turrets they did have could still fire at ranges equal to their more mobile counterparts, they just lacked the raw power.

"I think you've got the space battle, Tsavong." Nei chimed in.

"Yes, that's a good call, though we'll see how close it ends up." He answered absentmindedly, focused on the results of his plan that, so far, had worked.

The gunships fired their boarding torpedoes at the space station, though the they were empty. Instead, the torpedoes either drew away point defense fire or made it and bored into the shields and depleted them further while the Elcor bombers came around and fired their remaining munitions into the now weakened shields, bringing them down with their concussion missiles and their third, and final, plasma torpedo from each one would shoot past the now shieldless areas and detonate on the actual station's hull. The few surviving bombers turned around to head to the nearest cruiser to rearm while the gunships continued shooting towards the surface as fast as their engines could carry them. Multiple gunships, about a sixteenth of the total amount, were lost on the way down from the space station's fire, but the station was going down and most of the ground forces made it intact, though without walkers as the Mothership Cruisers were not in a position to drop them in from orbit yet.

As the gunships reached the ground, they took fire from turret emplacements in the asuran base; antimatter pellets hit the sides of gunships and collected before exploding. Though relatively puny for an antimatter based weapon, the explosions still rocked the gunships hard and caught disembarking warriors in the blasts, causing significant injuries and casualties before the gunships could take off again and get out of the way. The warriors gathered and moved towards the asuran colony base. The defenses were mostly asuran infantry and four of the antimatter turrets, but they also had vehicles and smaller turrets. Several Minotaurus walkers were powering up and moving towards the base gates to engage the lorwardians in a field battle while the base's shorter ranged defenses like conductor coil based Zapp Turrets warmed up their chain lightning for the incoming attack.

"Well, give the asura credit," Tsavong mused as he watched the ground battle unfold, "the weaklings try on foot."

The lorwardian warriors moved in and began laying down fire with staff weapons, bolts of plasma hurtling towards the asura at high speed and often vaporizing those they hit, and completely depleting the kinetic barriers of those they did not. The vehicles were more resistant, Minotaurus walkers firing their heavy energy cannons towards the lorwardian infantry. Although a direct hit was a quick and messy end for a warrior, the cannons were calibrated and designed for far larger prey, and few warriors were hit and the main effect the walkers caused was limited suppression.

And the larger prey would not come. Although the asuran space station was crippled and falling apart, few if any turrets operational and its core melting down, the lorwardian space forces had been destroyed by the defenses before the battle damage caught up with the space station, bombers included as the hanger bay of the ship they were on had been blown out. And with the lost Mothership Cruisers, they lost their Strike Walkers. And since the bombers were busy rearming on the ship, he also lost them as well.

Tsavong bit his lip; that would hurt as he needed those Strike Walkers to drop in and start tearing up the asuran defensive turrets, or failing that bomber strikes. Lorwardian warriors were powerful, but they rarely carried the munitions needed to deal with longer ranged vehicles without jumping onto them and smashing them. This process was even more difficult with defensive turrets, and that was not going into the asura using nanite repair systems or regenerative bio-steel. So far, the ground battle was in his favor as the asuran infantry, reliant on their energy gauntlets, energy machine pistols, or discus grenades for weaponry depending on the individual soldier, were being routed. The asura had a few active Juggernaut constructs in the field controlled by one of their engineers, but a squad of warriors had pushed through the asuran ranks and eliminated him while others fought the constructs and brought them down with their various weapons, from staff weapons to plasma blades to power hammers.

But, the asuran defenses proved their worth. The Zapp Turret mounted conductor coils were electrifying warriors in chain reactions, zapping one warrior and jumping to the next to cause a chorus of electrified screams until it ran out of charge, while the mounted anti-matter turrets were creating explosions to force the lorwardians to scatter. The asuran infantry were taking heavy losses as direct infantry combat was their greatest weakness, but the lorwardians took heavy casualties as well, particularly against the spellcasters in the asuran ranks.

Eventually, the lorwardian forces were defeated, though not before destroying most of the asuran infantry garrison and a few of the Minotaurus mechs. Though they did not initially fight in a last stand as Tsavong had left a threshold for when it was time to cut their losses and pull out if significant asuran targets were still operable, but the Minotaurus walkers turned their guns to the sky and brought the gunships down under sustained fire into the air, preventing warriors from pulling back and leaving to fight another day, and thus a last stand to do as much damage as possible became the only option left. And while all involved were killed in battle, it still ended in a glorious haze of blood that had a steady decrescendo as fewer and fewer lorwardians remained standing until the only ones alive were those incapacitated by severe injuries.

"All in all, a relatively good showing." Orlok said as the simulation ended. "I saw in your notes that you were unable to find a pre-attack route. Elaborate, Tsavong."

He nodded slowly. "As you instructed yesterday, we are to look for important targets. My hope was to find weaknesses in the asuran defenses that a small team could slip into and cause havoc in to make the actual assault easier. However, the asuran defenses were concentrated enough that I deemed it impossible and all critical facilities were centered in the same region, that base and the colony settlement it defended."

The old warrior nodded. "Wise. Now, as to your gunship tactic to deal with the asuran bombers..."

_Ah yes, that._ He came up with the idea after Nei had gone to sleep as he could not help but get over a comment of hers after they mostly finalized their plans. That they always had insufficient fighter cover when dealing with the Alliance in these sims, like Orlok was trying to force them to realize something. And he did; he realized that torpedo bombers were the most dangerous threat in space combat because of their ability to dance around a fight and force shields to be kept even for fear of them coming in on the flank in sufficient numbers that point defense would not work. But he needed every fighter dealing with the Dragonfly Starfighters the asura launched, meaning he could not afford to spare any. He had wrestled with it, expecting his plan to be foiled by that when inspiration hit him and he considered the armaments of their Boarding Gunships and realized he had a potential tool, an underused one. He modified his plan with this in mind, staying up late into the night before he was satisfied.

"I must say, that was a clever use and a good way to handle a great threat," Orlok began, "Though you are not the first to come up with the idea. Nor shall you be the last."

"Warlord?" Tsavong asked, confused as he could not tell if this was approval or reproach.

"It is a valid tactic, as you proved, but you must remember that by using such tactics you expose your transports and the warriors within to additional enemy attacks. Had your fighter screen failed, as it almost did, your gunships would have come under attack and been hunted down like wild honds."

Tsavong nodded slowly, understanding the Warlord's point. "Therefore, it is a tactic I should use sparingly and only when other options are not viable."

"Correct, but this is the kind of innovation that will see you make it through battles. Innovation is the key point of these exercises, not victory." Orlok hit him once, for losing all his troops, then began to pace with a small lecture to come. Tsavong glanced down at his datapad; he had taken some notes on each assault, mostly noting the major points of each one. A lot of it had to do with flaws for each individual... what was his?

"These exercises were built with the idea that all battles would end in defeat. What I wished to see is how you coped with using inferior forces to defeat a conventionally superior foe. Yet, in each one, I have seen weaknesses. Giar, you are overconfident in your squadrons' capabilities, Borivik, you overestimated your tech support. While a certain amount of confidence is important to be bold as needed in battle, you must not overestimate your chosen field, nor must you lean on that which you are familiar with to carry your battles." He turned.

"Creske, as said earlier you have a kill focus and a lack of subtly. While this focus can serve you well, you must remember the battlefield as a whole and never give into a single minded focus. This is acceptable at some levels where you are given such goals, but to truly lead you must recognize more than the next twenty meters. Nei, you show great intelligence, but you overestimate the fear of lorwardian strength in its enemies. And Tsavong, your strategy was sound, and had your plan succeeded in full the ruthlessness would be one to make any foe wary. However, you must be wary of pride. Your assault was bold... and you were confident in lorwardian strength alone proving triumphant over every foe. Always be aware of even the weakest opponent, as you never know just how strong they are when pushed into a corner, when their loved ones are at risk and they have nothing left to lose. Even lorwardian physical strength, exceeded only by the azure empowered caladanians, has limits."

The class was quiet for a few moments before Orlok turned to Uruk. "Now, let us see what your strengths and weaknesses as a planner are."

Uruk's mission went as well as the rest of them, but he had used no subtly, simply throwing everything against the caladanian moon base and orbital defense turrets to try and force a breach and get all elements in combat so the caladanians could not provide a real unified response. The end result was his fighters being overstretched trying to deal with the caladanian pilots and covering the gunships from said pilots and the caladanian mobile anti-aircraft on the surface, his Cruisers being victimized by several torpedo bomber squadrons from the Battlestar defending it, and his ground forces were hammered by caladanian Condor Artillery Cannons as they landed and were pounded on by caladanian infantry spearheaded by members of the caladanian Empowered; those whose native superpowers were in full realization.

Uruk received a few hits for his brutal yet simplistic strategy and lack of innovation, and his total defeat.

XXXX

**End Chapter**

Author's Notes:

_- A "battle" focused chapter, but hopefully it gives some insight into the general workings of combat. Naturally, I only used a fraction of all the possible toys out there. For example, no lorwardian frigates (which is what I'm classifying Warmonga's ship from _Mad Dogs and Aliens_), and I did not show some of the other ground vehicles around like lorwardian Siege Walkers or Annhilatrons. And the asura were not using all their self-made toys since it is hard to predict those with a simulator._

_- A note about scale, though. The forces involved would normally be larger, as taking a full blown planet, especially an inhabited one, is a difficult process. I simplified it into one-site colonies just because... it's a simulation, it's not supposed to be the real deal and the goal was not to simulate actually besieging a populated world, but test innovation in planning. Taking a planet with only a few settlements and/or military bases is a chapter or two in as of itself, or even just raiding it for resources. And for major places like the caladanian home system of Jingos, a story..._

_- For those guessing at home; the asuran conductor coils mounted on Zapp Turrets are essentially Tesla Coils. But Tesla was a human, so using his name was not really appropriate. In-universe, 'Zapp' is the name of the asuran guild which manufactures all their military's lightning (Tesla) based weaponry. Though not shown here, they also employ Zapp Mechs as combat vehicles._

_- I also want to thank FBB and AngelicInkLing for giving me some feedback on this chapter before I posted it; it really helped improve the flow of the chapter._


	4. Chapter 4 - Priority: Raid on Antiga

_"Gembat Boarding Torpedoes: Putting the PARTY back in 'Boarding Party'!"_

- Advertising slogan for the first generation of boarding torpedoes, slogan still in use.

XXXX

**Six Standard Days Later**

**Warbeak's Estate**

Nei chuckled as she watched Uruk land on his butt, knocked down by Creske's punch. He had tried to put moves towards her, but came a little too close for the berserker's comfort. Shaking her head as he pushed himself up, Nei glanced towards the shooting range where Tsavong was again drilling Borivik in the usage of a plasma pistol. The tech inclined lorwardian was shaping up rather well with some forced target practice, but still used his technology as a first resort.

"So," Giar asked idly, leaning on the wall a half meter from her as he idly drank from the metal cup he was holding, "Any word from home?"

She shook her head. "Nothing new, just some basic expansions of the main war factory and barracks. Dad's been planning on expanding the standing forces lately, figuring that I'll be earning a command soon and going after the Alliance."

He nodded. "Probably a good call; unlike some people here you've got a level enough head to lead." He jerked his thumb towards Uruk and Creske as they started chuckling and pushing each other around. "At least better than those two. I'm pretty sure they were only sent here because their parents paid someone a lot."

"They've gotten a few things from it. Maybe they're just going to figure it out later." Nei shrugged. "Or maybe Orlok has a soft spot for them because they reminds him of who he was when he was younger. Either way, there is not much we can do. Some people just aren't cut for leading. Or fighting, in Borivik's case."

"Eh, you'd be surprised." Giar commented as he looked through the safety glass panel separating the room they were in from the range. "Techs like him might prefer to fix a broken fuselage over putting holes in a caladanian's, but they're still lorwardians. They still have blood haze and can go berserk when pushed."

"I'll believe it when I see it," she answered with a shrug as she tried to envision Borivik sufficiently pissed off and in a full blown rage, or going nuts from the blood haze while sitting in front of his workbenches back in his home.

The blood haze, a term to explain lorwardians suddenly losing their self control and going berserk, hitting or attempting to tear apart anything or anyone near them. Though no one knew where it originated in their evolution, all lorwardian thinkers agreed that it was originally an over adaptation to the hostile creatures that inhabited Lorwardia. As a result of their adaptations, lorwardians not only grew to be the physically strongest sapient species in the galaxy, but their bodies had redundant nervous systems and hormone producers, including adrenaline.

This additional adrenaline production is what triggered the blood haze. If the adrenaline was not used in some physically intense manner (combat being the most popular way of venting it), it eventually overrode their serotonin entirely and sent them into a berserker rage. While not a problem in a violent hunter-gatherer society, as technology grew life became drastically easier as killing wild honds with a plasma bolt at range was much simpler than it was to gut and kill them in hand-to-hand with an iron knife. Nowadays, most non-warrior lorwardians or warriors denied access to war would either spar with a friend to vent it or would head to a local dojo to beat on some combat dummies for the same purpose.

Even before it was fully understood, of course, the lorwardians had a rough idea of its presence and a tradition that carried to this day gave them a chance to control it. To turn it from a potential weakness into a strength to go the extra kilometer. This tradition was the Gauntlet, a hunt where the young lorwardian would be pitted against wild dangers of the land to force them to take it and make it their own. Honds were a common animal used in these hunts, as the six legged canine predators originated from Lorwardia, were relatively easy to breed and domesticate, and were sufficiently dangerous. Their danger came from their ability to secrete an acid-like saliva that could weaken even modern metals, which allowed their sharp teeth and claws to do the rest.

Naturally, tradition varied place to place. Those born into the Hunter caste usually went to a wild region where everything was real, which she did back on in the Durnai system as the local felines were sufficiently dangerous in their own turf. Others did so in controlled environments, particularly urban regions where wild dangers suitable for a coming of age were unavailable. These, Nei always felt, lacked substance because the Thinker caste spent years modifying the specifics for 'maximum output' or whatever technobabble they spoke.

"Anyways," Giar said with a shrug, drawing Nei out of trying to imagine Borivik gone berserk. "I wouldn't worry about him. Even if he doesn't go out to fight a war, he can still contribute to it. I have nightmares of where our squadrons would be without people like him around keeping us flying."

"Maybe, but that does not mean they're worthy of glory or a war name." Nei countered as she raised an eyebrow at him. Was he seriously suggesting sharing glory with the noncombatants? The ones who would not go into the lorwardian birthright of war?

"War'Tec has a war name, and he was probably just like Borivik when he grew up." Giar counted. "You and Tsavong seem just fine with him."

"Well, he makes good staff weapons, pistols, nullifier gauntlets, and his Strike Walker models are just the right blend of durability and speed for any good raid. Fine craftsmanship worthy for real warriors."

"BlastMech Skunkworks does the same, and for only part of the cost." The pilot tried to take another drink and looked into the cup when he realized it was empty. He shook his head and continued. "Look, I'm no Manifest Hierarchy drone who doesn't take in the glory he earns in blood, but you have to recognize that the Lorwardian Imperium and our fighting forces as they are today comes from being built on noncombatants. The age where hunters could just shoot a few honds and we'd have all the provisions needed for a night are long gone. Fuel, rations, power cells, walkers, starships, weapons... it's all built by our noncombatants."

"Why don't we just automate?" Nei asked in exasperation. "Seems like we could get rid of a lot of problems just by doing that. Then we'd have all the bodies we need to finish off the Alliance instead of giving them a chance to try and delay us."

"Hey, I'd be fine with everything being autoloaders so we could have everyone focus on killing things, but we need someone who knows how it all goes together when the automated stuff fails. This war, the glory? We owe part of it to the gear."

"So how many kills do you need to actually be an ace if you owe part of each one to the Manufacturers sitting behind the lines?"

He scowled angrily. "Hey, I said we owe part of the glory to the gear. I didn't say they got credit, it's still our skill and prowess in battle that gets the cause advanced. I just recognize that modern war calls for a lot more than a few warriors."

"Mmmmhmmm." She answered, rolling her eyes. "Well, you might as well get another drink. I don't think they've automated that yet."

He shook his head and walked away. This was not the first time they had that conversation. She simply dismissed it as him and his arguments as his being a fighter pilot and her a warrior of the original style. Of actually tasting an opponent's blood as she gutted them or watching them collapse from a well aimed shot. _Though,_ she admitted as she watched Borivik trying to boost his pistol with his tech harness to Tsavong's annoyance, _I suppose fighter combat is similar, they just see the machine around the enemy exploding instead of their blood spilling._ Still, he had a point. A small one, but modern galactic war was a very different beast from the traditional battles she read, watched, and heard so much about and fantasized being part of as a child... And the idea that lorwardian strength now relied on noncombatants frightened her, because it meant that their culture was no longer able to focus on war as it was supposed to.

The door to the shooting range opened and Tsavong walked in with Borivik, shaking his head. "I've told you, you cannot rely on your tech to win."

"I know, but until I get good enough without tech I should be familiar in using it to compensate." Borivik answered.

"A real warrior does not need a crutch."

"So the jet pa-" Borivik cut himself off and shook his head. "Never mind. Anyways, where'd Giar go?"

"He went for another drink," Nei answered as Creske and Uruk had finally collapsed into the chairs next to a stuffed hond's head, both sporting a few new bruises and chuckling over it.

Another lorwardian with Warbeak's insignia on his shoulder guard came in. Tsavong looked up.

"Battleacks? What is it?" He asked. The warrior, one of Warbeak's ground captains, lowered his head in respect briefly. The double headed plasma axe strapped to his back was easily visible as he did so.

"A... a message, for Nei," the deep spoken lorwardian explained with surprising uncertainty. Nei always remembered him being a firm talker.

She frowned as she realized something was up. Normally they would just reach her communicator for a message or forward it to the console in her room. "What is it?"

"The Durnai System is being raided by an unknown alien force and we received information and a distress call. We have it in the war room..."

"What are you waiting for, lead us in!" Tsavong barked. Battleacks nodded quickly and the two hurried after him with Borivik shortly behind them.

Warbeak's War Room had four main areas. First was a large central hub with a three meter by three meter galaxy map that doubled as a command and control tactical interface surrounded by various communication uplinks and displays for them. Then there were two side rooms for smaller staff meetings which were equipped with smaller displays, and finally Warbeak's private chamber where he would handle matters not suited for others to see or those that required a personal touch. Including, as Nei had found when he showed her when she first arrived, interrogating prisoners. He had been surgically melting off an asura's foot for information on a major mechanized factory starbase producing constructs to threaten his holdings at the time, which he destroy a few days later. Although Tsavong had access to the room, he avoided going in there unless it was important or he had direct permission. They were lead into this room and Warbeak was looking down at a display.

"Ah, Nei. Good." He nodded firmly. "I wanted you to see this in person; forwarding it to you seemed too impersonal."

"Just tell me what's going on!" she shouted, louder than she intended and she winced, and not because of the caladanian skeleton from the last victim he interrogated using acid. Warbeak raised an eyebrow at her and rose before stopping himself. Tsavong gave her a slight nudge and she glanced at him, nodding. _Keep calm; show the proper respect for a great warlord,_ she reminded herself._ Even if you are right to be worried._

"I'll show you, then offer my interpretation." Warbeak touched several keys on the large metal control and the holodisplay increased in size. The first bit was footage of a large asuran vessel, some sort of heavily modified cruiser, though not of a design she was familiar with. She could not see her father's cruisers or other space assets in the footage, so she guessed that he was away on a raid when this happened. Since her mother died in combat years ago, that only left her younger brother and uncle as being down there on the planet for family.

The footage quickly cut as the Cruiser deployed something which she assumed was a custom built jammer, then the footage returned to show a few brief shots of lorwardian warriors fighting off a mix of caladanian and asuran mercenaries as the jamming briefly lowered. These images did not provide much in the way of helping to understand, but a more extended footage later helped. This extended piece of footage was an asuran technician of some sorts in blue who looked like the leader walking by a security camera before turning and activating his tech harness to overload the camera. Then a message was in the footage; one of her father's squad leaders.

"_Pirates..._" static, "_...have taken..._" static, _"... main city on Antiga..._" static, "_...rounding up people..._" static, "_Warlord at ..._" static. "_Requesting reinforcements..._" static, _"Regrouping at Lodge Four..."_

"This is all that was recovered." Warbeak explained slowly. "As to your father, he is currently on a raid to the nearby Draco system, and was not at Antiga. He is out of contact for the moment, however. I believe that once he returns the asura will be driven out, but otherwise there are still fighting forces to keep the raiders busy. But I cannot say what the raiders are there for, though I suspect it is a subject raid."

She nodded slowly, thinking. The warlord was right: if the asura were leading and raiding a system like Durnai with only a single cruiser, then they were not looking for turf. They did not have the troops to actually occupy the planet. They were after test subjects. "Thank you, Warlord. I need to find a way home; I'll hang before I let the asura take my family for test subjects."

He nodded slowly. "I cannot spare any direct troops, but your father's warriors are quite capable and experienced in war, so surviving warriors should be able to turn the tables. I could not find references to a 'Lodge Four', however."

"You wouldn't," she answered as she remembered the defense plans. "Lodge Four is a hidden mountain base kept off the books as it's a fallback position. I know where it is, though."

Tsavong nodded. "Good, then we can meet with them there and drive those pirates out."

"We?" She asked with a frown. "I'd be glad for the help, but the Durnai system is off the network and it will take a day to get there." They had standard three days off, but it was already past noon on their first one and they would for certain miss their next training session with Orlok if they went to Durnai.

Tsavong glanced to his father, who simply looked back at him. He considered a moment before answering. "Maybe, but I would be a poor friend if I did not help you. If we did not help you now."

Borivik glanced around awkwardly as he realized he was being volunteered before weakly protesting, "Er, we're still in training."

"Command training," Warbeak cut in with a faint smile. "But warrior training, you have all completed. Even you, Borivik, are ready to fight in a warband. Even if it's with those... toys of yours."

"I'm being dragged along, aren't I?" Borivik said with an exasperated sigh. Clearly, he did not want to go. But saying no to Tsavong, Nei knew, was a bad idea in the class. _Except for me, for some reason..._

"Think of it as a chance to finally prove your worth," Tsavong answered. "Now, Nei, what's the fastest route?"

"A jump through the warp network to the Altara System and then going by FTL. Do we have a ship, or?..."

"I have a few Explorer Frigates at the starport for emergencies like this." Warbeak answered, "I'll clear you to take one. Return it in one piece, yes?"

Nei grimaced before nodding. "Th.. thank you, Warlord. This is... more than I expected for help."

"Go, kick those arrogant aliens off of lorwardian territory. Show them the fury of your family and remind the galaxy why it is not the Manifest Hierarchy that should be feared, but the true warriors expanding our empire boldly."

"Shouldn't we talk to Warlord Orlok about this?" Borivik cut in. "I mean, besides missing his next training session or potentially more, the Manifest Hierarchy does respond to these kinds of issues..."

Warbeak snorted. "By the time they put together a force for a planetary battle, the asuran pirates will have made off with many lorwardians for their experiments. Forget the Hierarchy's slow responses, this is the hour of lorwardian glory."

"I... yes Warlord." Borivik said quietly, backing down.

"Now, grab your gear and get going. I assume Giar is proficient in piloting a frigate if needed?"

"He is, but he'd prefer a Thannix in combat." Nei answered. "And he likes the Hierarchy variant, not the one we Hunters use."

Warbeak shook his head. "He'll make due, there'll be a fighter in the frigate's cargo bay for him to use. Anything else?"

"No, father. Nei?"

She shook her head. "No. And again, thank you."

XXX

**Frigate **_**Battlehok IV**_

**Lorwardia Orbit**

"How are we?" Borivik asked as he sat in the copilot seat. Giar glanced to him and nodded.

"Good, we'll be at the gate in one standard minute. Everyone strapped in?"

He received a chorus of affirmatives. Their whole class was going on this crazy mission. Giar shook his head; they were good fighters, but stopping a raid was a bit beyond them. About the only reason he believed they would have success is that it would take the asura time to round up enough lorwardians for their experiments both because every single one would make it bloody, and because restraining a lorwardian was difficult even for other lorwardians. But the Draco System was at least one day's jump away from Antiga, if the local forces kept Warbrin'ger's forces tied up there...

Then again, what were they expecting to find? How long could a prepared test subject raid take? Although it was a small enough force that taking the whole population was clearly out of the question, surely the asuran madman behind the attack would be competent enough to finish before reinforcements could show up? Or, he was too smart and realized the Manifest Hierarchy base on Altara would take forever to respond, especially if he knew of the issues between the Manifest Hierarchy's drones and the Expansionists busy spreading the lorwardian war to new frontiers.

He shook his head as he flew towards the space station, putting his uncertainties of the battle to the side. Technically a deep space station due to maintaining its own orbit around the lorwardian home system, it was large and glowed brightly in the dark void of space. Discus shaped in the center with four spires in four rough 'corners', the spires began to glow as they approached the one on the 'upper' section of the station. There was no up in space, of course, but as it was relative to them it was 'up'.

_"Frigate Battlehok IV, confirm destination and transponder."_

"Transmitting now," Giar answered. "Destination is the Altara System."

_"Affirmative. Approach warp location and maintain a holding pattern until we lock you in. Have all persons aboard brace as tractor beams will hold you in position with the station while we calculate your jump."_

"Understood." Giar gently guided the ship into the center and a warning siren blared as the tractor beams locked on. He silenced the alarm as soon as the computer systems confirmed they were from the space station. He glanced to Borivik, "Keep an eye on the sensor board in case something else tried to get a lock."

The other man nodded and Giar sat back. Warp Gates... without them, the war would go far slower than it already did. These massive structures in space were the key to rapid transport across the galaxy. Although Faster-Than-Light travel was possible and favored amongst the lorwardians, jumping from two ends of the galaxy was still a long process that taxed ships and their fuel reserves. Warp Gates, originally an asuran invention that everyone but the meriur stole and reverse engineered, were massive structures that would shift a ship and its cargo through space via teleportation.

These Gates had two main types; in-system ones which were smaller and usually used for rapid interplanetary travel by single ships which rarely went farther than one system away from its origin, and the galactic nodes which allowed for whole fleets to be moved to any other galactic node in the network. They were approaching a galactic one and several ships were near them, mostly armed freighters. _Probably carrying new Manifest Hierarchy grunts to get outfitted at Altara,_ he decided.

There were warp gate multiple networks, though. Specifically, there were two major networks, one ran by the Alliance and one ran by the Lorwardian Imperium. Taking a gate theoretically would give access to the network it was tied too, but both sides were very protective of their access and installed multiple redundant firewalls, armor, internal defenses, and more to make taking a gate and then using the network it was connected to a stroke of luck that would only last for a few seconds. As a result, general doctrine would just reconnect it to the network to receive an incoming force from the conqueror's network. And those were the only two major networks; galactic scale gates were too expensive for private powers to run. The lorwardian ones were neither Manifest Hierarchy or Expansionist, as the Imperator and the forces answering directly to him had jurisdiction on the gates due to how vital they were. No Imperator was foolish enough to allow the bickering between the two ideologies hamstring rapid transport capabilities.

_"All ships prepare for warp."_ The station commander said and Giar set the viewport to be fully opaque, blocking out most of the bright light as the gate activated and they were enveloped in an singularity and moved across the galaxy, with only the shimmering inside of the singularity for company.

Warp travel was rapid, but it had major downsides. Ships, people, anything coming out on the other side would take time to rematerialize. Although Giar did not know the science behind it, he knew that on the other side the singularity would materialize in open space, grow and push away anything in the needed space slowly, and then they would come through. That said, it took time to grow and create the pure void to allow a ship to safely arrive without being tele-fragged, or exploding when occupying the same space as other reasonably sized particles. The destination areas of a Warp Gate station were well marked with beacons to minimize pilots crashing into the incoming singularity or being destroyed as it created room, but accidents still happened. Often spectacularly. While the singularity was growing, however, those being teleported through were... elsewhere. Some thought it was another dimension, others believed it was simply a wormhole-like corridor, but the end result was they sat in it while waiting to reach their destination.

As it ended, Giar was paralyzed and the rematerializing process began. Although still protected by the singularity, it only lasted until they were halfway rematerialized and once the singularity vanished they were wide open to being hammered on while incapable of movement and with all systems offline. In a battle, this was often the time to attack as everything that rematerialized would be far more fragile than usual. Ships were built strong enough to deal with micrometeorites or other space hazards that could not be reasonably protected against at this stage, but against heavy broadside batteries even a Dreadnaught would break apart.

As soon as rematerializing finished, a multi-minute process, he shook his head and rolled his tongue around his mouth to make sure he had feeling and reactivated the ship. The upside of warp travel, of course, was that the power cores remained warm and it only took seconds to reactivate everything.

"Engines at full power, shields ready, weapons on normal recharge." Borivik answered as the other ships around them began moving towards the many war factories and starbases of Altara. "Ready to go to FTL?"

"Not yet," Giar answered as he lowered the viewport's opaqueness to allow him to see everything again. "We need to navigate out of this system; it's extremely dense, remember?"

"Right. Lots of planets, asteroid rings, and other goodies..."

"I'm not worried about the asteroids, remember, they're a lot more spread out than in fiction. They just make FTL jumps a pain..."

"True."

XXX

**The Next Day**

**Antiga Orbit; Durnai System**

_"Okay, Borivik, what do the sensors tell you?"_ Giar asked as his fighter matched speed near the Frigate's flank. They were over Antiga now, and Nei could see the planet below. Although she was born on Lorwardia itself and spent her pre-puberty childhood there, it was before her father became a Warlord with his own command. Once he did, he took the planet as his territory and moved out from the other Warlord he had been under. As a result, she spent the rest of her time as a child on the untamed planet. She smiled briefly as she remembered the good hunts in the tropical zones, dry around the equator and wet above or below it, and the pleasant temperate region towards the poles.

"We're clear here. Nei, lead us in." Borivik said as she sat down in the pilot's seat and began plotting a course. Though not a pilot by trade, it was common amongst the Hunter caste to at least be proficient in the basics for when they went off on their own hunt.

"Uploading the course now, Giar. Any problems?" Nei asked as she finished uploading the route to Lodge Four.

_"Besides this fighter having weaker armor than I usually fly with? It'll be dirt easy for that asuran ship to come over here and blast us out of the sky, even if the gun would give them a nice bruised eye in return. You sure you want to take the ship there? We've got Predator gear in the hold."_

"They need to keep that ship close to the city in order to handle the round up," Tsavong cut in from behind her. "They won't be able to come over."

"We'll still tell them where Lodge Four is, though." Borivik added uncertainly.

"That's alright," Nei answered. "Backup bases like Lodge Four are intended for one use only, and we do not have time to waste. Besides, if we draw them away from the city it means less time trying to gather people." Still, she uncomfortably admitted that he was right. If they were trying to remain low, they were liable to tell the pirates where the base was. If nothing else, the cruiser was likely to pick up a ship landing there.

"Alright, course laid in." Borivik said before he turned away from the controls once the auto-pilot was set. "We should probably get our gear on. You guys are using K-barriers, right?"

"Of course," Nei answered, raising an eyebrow at him. "Just because we skip them in the simulators doesn't mean we wouldn't use one in a real battle."

"Right. Let me guess; actual war you add the K-barriers, for hunts and the sims you skip them?"

"Correct." Tsavong answered with a nod. "We may prefer to feel the blood of battle, but we are not stupid." He narrowed his eyes at the wannabe thinker.

"Never said you were!" Borivik hastily added, "Just making sure. Anyways, I better go put my armor on. This thing should be fine on autopilot until we're closer..."

As Borivik left, Tsavong looked down at her. "So, are you ready?"

"What kind of question is that?" Nei answered with a frown. "Of course I'm ready to bring the war right to these vermin!"

Tsavong's eyes widened before he recovered from the sudden outburst and nodded. "Good. We'll get a chance. This is your fight, though. So, take the lead."

Was... was Tsavong letting her take the lead on this one? She blinked as she realized that he had just given her the lead when normally he would take the lead.

XXX

**Lodge Four**

"Haha! Nei, good to see you!"

"Warsord, good to see that you're still alive." Nei answered as she shook the older woman's hand and turned to her fellow classmates. "This is Warsord, my father's second in command. I thought you'd be with him on the raid."

The older and bald lorwardian woman had a lighter green skin color than the rest of them, but was covered in scars and war paint with a large blade strapped onto the back of her thick hide armor with a metal hauberk over her chest. "If I had a choice, I'd be there, but he wanted me here training the new warriors coming up. Now I'm coordinating our defense."

Nei nodded. "I brought some help, my class."

"Ah," she nodded to them, who were wearing more armor than they wore around Lorwardia, mostly additional armor plates around their torsos and legs. "That one looks small," she jerked a thumb towards Borivik, who was wearing the least armor of the group and had no additional plating around his arms, "but I can use the rest of you. They've taken the main base and are using it to stop us from flying our fighters over and hitting that ship."

"How did they take the guns?" Nei asked with a frown. "I do not see how they would of been silent in the raid."

"They deployed some sort of all frequency jammer and then hit the main base with some sort of EMP device that shut it down." Warsord scowled. "The cowards would of been destroyed if they didn't do that and hit our starport's fighter bay before we could scramble most of our defenders."

"Wait, don't you have FTL sensors?" Borivik asked. "Did the asura take those out with jamming as well?"

"Far as I can tell, someone sabotaged them. Cut clean through some important wiring in inconvenient places before hiding. They were fixed when the cruiser showed up, but then the targeting was jammed."

Nei frowned. "Well, it looks like we need to retake the main guns. How many of our fighters are left? What about the other settlements?"

"The aliens mostly took out the starport's Thannix fighters, so our air-to-air is going to be a little more problematic than usual. There's a bunch of Elcor bombers ready to go in the war factory if the mercenaries haven't blown them up yet, but they are busy trying to capture our people in the city. They've got a bunch of caladanian mercenaries, mostly azures and emeralds, working on that while those cowardly asura are deploying snares and magical stasis attacks from behind them."

Warsord folded her arms and her scowl deepened. "The cowards found this place and hit us with an airstrike, but since then they've left us alone, like they're afraid of antagonizing us beyond keeping our heads down. Ditto with the other settlements, though they're on alert and the warriors are ready to counterattack. The mercs lost a few fighters and torpedo bombers to anti-aircraft turrets once the local manufacturer militias there got their sorry asses to their posts."

"Why haven't you hit back?" Uruk asked in disbelief. "If they're afraid, you should prove them right."

"Because most of us showed up wounded, kid." She snarled back hotly. Nei knew why; the idea of having to wait to kill and snatch victory from the dying breath of opponents was a bane to Warsord. "We patched them up and those of us able to fight did a few raids to keep them on their toes, but we're far under strength and running out under the guns of a full ship is not something that any of us are eager to do. It's only glorious if we win and fight an enemy face to face. Being vaporized from orbit is just a ticket to anonymity."

"Then we have to hamstring the ship somehow." Nei answered as she considered options open. "If they've put it over the main city, then we should be able to retake the guns and hit them hard. Then Giar and any other pilots we have left can get themselves into a fighter or bomber from the war factories and chase the ship off, or at least force them to pull back. Maybe even cripple the engines so we can board it."

Warsord nodded, "Great minds thing alike, Nei. We were going to do another raid tonight under the cover of darkness, see if we could get a gun or two on our side and put a little anti-orbital into their engines."

"Hacking turrets?" Borivik chimed in with a slight smile. "Not a problem, just point me to the mainframe and I can set to work."

"Mentalist, huh? Why'd one of them sparkies be learning to lead?" Warsord asked in disbelief.

"His parents." Nei shrugged back. "We mostly just put up with him and make him do pistol practice."

Warsord shrugged nonchalantly. "Would of just left him to his devices and had another kid to be a real heir, or adopt one, but whatever. We can use him. We might actually get all the guns and be able to drive them out instead of just getting a gun or two for some damage and then fighting to make sure they don't get too much deployed."

"Thanks, I'm reminded why I decided to come along and incur Warlord Orlok's wrath for missing one of his lessons." Borivik sarcastically answered as he shook his head. "Any other technicians here, or am I the only one?"

"Everyone here's a warrior. All the manufacturers are back in the city getting a chance to prove they're actually useful in a fight or being ready to prove such at the other settlements. And you better not be a burden."

"Just stop them from shooting at me. It's kind of hard to bypass a terminal when my K-barrier is being brought down by live fire. Literally, if it's an asuran engineer or battlemancer."

"Enough," Tsavong cut in loudly. "We have a plan. Now we need to work on details."

"Better than arguing with a sparkie." Warsord said with a shrug. "Oh, by the way, names?"

XXX

**Four Hours Later**

**Antiga Capital City**

Inside the main communications hub, an asuran genius walked down the main room where all the hardware was. The asura were a short species, compared to the plodding giants of everyone else, especially the lorwardians who were about three times their size. But, the marsupial asura were a cunning species. Although their felt-like fur, mole like features, and floppy ears that usually flapped down on the side of their head would make them seem unthreatening, the asura were masters of science and magic in tandem. Just never ask them to punch someone, as unlike other species, their bones were evolved for a low gravity world and were prone to breaking on worlds with higher gravity. And when it came to punching, only having three fingers (or two fingers and a thumb) on each hand left them somewhat lacking, especially in the face of the five fingered lorwardians and meriur.

This asuran genius in particular was wearing a black lab coat with dark blue gloves hooked to his tech harness under the lab coat, the light brown furred asura watched his operation proceeding. Though the lorwardians were proving resistant, he already had enough samples to begin the core work. The rest was just extra samples and bonuses since the lorwardian warriors here had foolishly gone out to attack another system and left too few guards to deal with his genius. Though the jamming device was not his invention, he had to leave his biological creations at his lab to leave room on the ship for the goal, this was his victory. His genius at work.

Several caladanian mercenaries, azures wearing gray body armor with red under armor and with a variety of particle rifles harnessed on their backs, were busy taking apart the core systems to take back with them. The caladanians stood just under twice the height of an asura, and were a hybrid of avian and reptilian traits. On the reptilian side, their skin was hide like with a scale-like surface, and were cold blooded. On the avian side came their iconic metallic 'feathers', which formed natural body armor along their torsos, lower legs, and arms. Those on the outside of their lower legs and forearms could be raised on end, and these feathers were strong enough and sharp enough to act like a row of serrated blades ideally suited for cutting people open in battle. Their hands were more accurately described as claws or talons, four fingered (or three fingers, one thumb) on each hand and a similar matchup for their feet, albeit sans talons suited for clawing and only suited for walking and running.

The asuran genius glanced at one caladanian struggling to lift a large core and rolled his eyes, charging his tech harness. "Put your tail feather into it!" He ordered and overloaded the slacking mercenary's kinetic barrier, which popped loudly and the mercenary grunted from the shock of his shields being taken down.

"We don't have tail feathers..." another one muttered bitterly.

"What was that?" He retorted with a snarl, though inside he was grinning. He got a reaction from the grunt. And he was about to get another one.

"Nothing!" the mercenary hastily added before grunting as his body glowed a light blue and he began moving the mainframe. He shook his head, annoyed at the slower progress when he felt a talon touching him in the shoulder.

"Doctor Gaddfly?"

Jumping up with a scream (and a female caladanian screamed behind him in surprise), he turned around and snarled, looking up at his leading henchwoman while he was smarter than the rest of the mercenaries and had sabotaged the defenses.

"Lang Cai, what have I told you about sneaking up on me like that!" Gaddfly scowled up at her, though unlike the last time where he simply was looking for a reaction he was actually annoyed this time.

"I was _not_ sneaking!" the blue eyed caladanian shot back, folding her arms leaving the hilt and tip of her sword made out of emerald crystal from the caladanian homeworld easily visible as she looked down at him physically.

"Meriur Shadow Disciples make more noise than you, so _quit it_." Gaddfly snarled at her and she backed down. "Now, where are we at collection?"

"Minimal sample size grabbed from the populace and loaded onto the ship, fully restrained and in those tanks."

He nodded. He had handmade each of the Bio Stasis Tanks (BSTs) in use on his ship, taking less space than cells and not requiring as much restraint as so long as the captives failed to wake up, they would be inert and asleep. If they woke up, though... "Backup plan ready?"

"Yes, we've loaded the main gun with that everything-eating bioweapon thing you made."

"Good, I've wanted to see how that thing worked in a real test. A little pest control here if we run out of time will be handy." His Ecologically Collateral Ordnance, or ECO warhead, was designed to completely turn a city sized area into gray goo and make it difficult to reclaim for scorched planet tactics. Of course, multiple groups like caladanian governments and the Meriur Hierarchy had tried to convince him not to do it until he was sure it would not eat the whole planet, but he dismissed their simpleminded (or in the meriur case, culturally backwards) objections. He was _the_ asuran biogeneticist who had created the Biologically Augmented Neutralization Golem! The genius behind Fleshbots! He played with DNA like it was a caladanian chick's building blocks! He was above such petty and simple objections.

The caladanian raised an eyebrow but shrugged. "Whatever you say, boss. We've had a few more counterattacks from the surviving warriors, though."

"Then _deal with them_. You're the one trained in ancient caladanian martial arts! Do I have to do everything?"

XXXX

Under the cover of darkness, the various warriors had moved towards the capital. Nei, Tsavong, Borivik, Uruk, and Creske were going to hit the main communications hub where Borivik could start hacking the turrets remotely and destroy the jamming device. Giar was waiting back at Lodge Four with his fighter while the other pilots were ready to storm the war factory with the freshly built craft sitting inside once Warsord's team took it. Once air support was viable, he would launch and join them while some of Warsord's wounded handled driving the Explorer Frigate for heavy fire support.

Borivik had wondered aloud why they did not have experienced fighters in their team, but Nei reminded him again that they were all trained for fighting war, it was _leadership_ in war they were learning, not fighting. Fighting they were well and good with by the time they left primary school, and they were all over twenty; old enough that the Manifest Hierarchy forces would accept them into their ranks if they deigned to join them as lowly grunts on foot.

And now they had reached the side of the main hub and Tsavong was preparing a grappling hook. They had arrived into the city via _Predator _series hoverbikes and hoverboards, staying low and slow to avoid patrols. They had abandoned them in back alleys where they would look like something discarded from the earlier fighting and made it through the city on foot, with Nei showing them through the alleys to dodge the patrols of caladanian mercenaries and the occasional asuran engineer or magician. They quickly reached the main communications hub's outer wall.

"Okay, hook ready. Let's go." Nei whispered as she threw the hook up and it latched. Tugging the reinforced rope to make sure it would hold, she climbed up, followed by Tsavong, then Uruk, then Borivik, with Creske taking the back.

"We're up here. Now how're we getting in?" Borivik asked.

Nei gestured towards an access hatch and entered an access code before dropping in. The rest followed her down and they found themselves behind a large mainframe. "Which way?" Tsavong asked.

"Controls are that way," she pointed to the right, "while the center is to the left. Chances are, if anyone's in here they'll be at the center."

"Then we head right." Borivik said as he held his pistol with both hands.

Nei shook her head. "No; you head right. We'll take care of anything in here. There's a way to the center when you take the first left heading right. Uruk, Creseke, you go that way. Tsavong and I will go the other way and we catch them between a warhammer and the ground."

"And what'll I use for cover?" Borivik asked hotly, tilting his head incredulously. "What if someone sneaks around while I'm hacking? Kinetic barriers won't stop a caladanian's blade feathers unless they charge it with azure or emerald power."

"They'll be too busy with us," Tsavong answered. "So go do your tech thing."

"Alright, fine." He started off, muttering something that sounded along the lines of 'if I die I'll kill them' as he went.

They split up and Nei knelt behind a large crate, frowning as she watched the azure caladanians moving equipment and realized they were trying to steal her father's communication records. She also saw a single asuran technician arguing with the female caladanian in blue and black with a sword. Tsavong nodded with his power hammer at the ready. She deployed her staff weapon and leapt over the crate.

_"ENEMIES INCOMING!"_ a caladanian mercenary shouted as he saw them and reached backwards, drawing compact caladanian particle rifle from his back and deploying it in full before opening fire. The other mercenaries reacted when Uruk and Creske charged in on the other side where most of the mercenaries were, leaving Nei and Tsavong to take on two other mercenaries and the two who seemed to be leaders.

The asura whirled around as Nei and Tsavong charged one of the mercenaries each, shrugging off the initial charge up of particle rifle beams with their kinetic barriers before colliding with their target in melee. Tsavong brought his power hammer down, smashing into the caladanian's kinetic barrier and breaking it. The caladanian survived however, dropping his rifle and punching him in the gut with a blue glowing fist. Thanks to the caladanian's azure powers, Tsavong was hit as if a lorwardian had hit him. But because of this, Tsavong's kinetic barrier activated and absorbed the worst of the blow, allowing Tsavong to avoid being pushed back and enabling him to drop the hammer on the caladanian and smash his head in.

Nei, meanwhile, had been parried by the caladanian bringing the rifle up to deflect her staff weapon and force it to point up before letting go of it with one hand and putting his forearm metallic feathers on edge and he slashed her without azure powers, bypassing her kinetic barrier and slashing her knee. Grunting from the strike, she moved her cut knee out of the way and used it as a pivot to kick the caladanian with her uninjured leg and knock him to the side. Although he was knocked a few steps backwards, the impact activated the caladanian's kinetic barrier and shot pain up her leg from the sudden stop.

She ignored it as she followed up her assault, closing the distance in two steps and bringing the side of the lower end of her staff weapon to strike the side of the caladanian's head, disorienting him as the blow hit his face and his skull cracked audibly. She then finished him off by bringing the plasma shooting end of the staff weapon around and blew him away at point blank, knocking the caladanian onto his back and burning his chest. Black smoke rose from the impact and Nei smiled, taking in the sight of life leaving her first sentient kill and enjoying the moment she transitioned from trained in war to actually having successfully killed the enemy.

Victorious, she turned to look up at the asura and his caladanian lackey while the other mercenaries were caught in close quarters with Uruk and Creske, who were taking some injuries from the mercenaries and their on-edge metallic feathers that struck like a row of serrated blades, but were returning it just as easily. After all, only the foolish, desperate, or very brave fought a muscular lorwardian brute dual wielding power hammers who sent mercenaries flying in single blows or a fierce lorwardian berserker who had a wrist mounted plasma scythe on each arm creating a whirlwind of death.

"Well, well, well," the asura said as he tilted his head towards them curiously. Though he was speaking another language, it came out as the standard lorwardian language thanks to the universal translators which were common amongst the galaxy's denizens. A side effect of this, though, was that lips did not synch up properly with what was being said in the language it was translated to. "A lorwardian female specimen, at two point seven-four-three-two meters tall and a male at three point zero-four-eight meters tall. Athletic builds, more of a muscleman on the male..." he tilted his head back and forth before shrugging. "Lang Cai, disable them if you can. If not... kill them."

The female caladanian smiled widely and drew her sword, "My pleasure, Doctor Gaddfly. Ready to go to your barbarian gods or whatever you worship, lorwardians?"

"We have no gods," Tsavong retorted, sneering at her ignorance. "But I suppose weaklings like you believe in such to compensate for your inadequacy."

"Hmmm," Gaddfly said with a slight smirk as he observed the exchange with an air of an arrogant scholar. "Lorwardians actively sneering at concept of religion. Not as unintelligent as I imagined..."

"Are you going to talk, 'doctor', or you going to fight?" Nei shot back as she charged her staff weapon and Tsavong readied his nullifier gauntlet. "Because if you're going to talk I would be happy to just take your head off and use it as a dodge ball."

"In a hurry to die, I see." Lang retorted with a smile as she held her sword in a reverse grip behind her and entered some caladanian martial arts stance. "Well, I'll enjoy leaving your blood and excrements on the floor."

Nei brought the staff weapon down and fired at the caladanian. Her kinetic barrier caught the blast, but she was also rolling to the side and activated her azure glow, which began charging along her sword as Tsavong charged. She ducked under his first swing and brought the blade up from behind her. Seeing it, he dropped the hammer down and blocked the blow before disengaging as Nei charged in and moved to impale the caladanian. She avoided the strike and grabbed the staff weapon, vaulting over it and smacking Nei in the chest with the flat edge of the crystalline blade, knocking her back as the azure charge in it resulted in a concussive blast.

Nei staggered back from the blow as her kinetic barrier broke, but she still held on to her staff weapon as Lang had let go of the weapon, finishing her move with a perfect landing on her feet. Snarling at the surprisingly capable caladanian warrior, Nei charged back into the fray as Lang held her sword two handed in front of her and parried the blows. They entered a pattern of strike and parry, neither gaining a distinct advantage but both got in a few hits that were either taken by shields, armor, or either species' natural fortitude. No successful blow was strong enough to do more than cause minor cuts.

Meanwhile, Tsavong went for Gaddfly directly, rocketing forward with his jet pack. The asura rolled out of the way and activated his tech gauntlet, overloading Tsavong's kinetic barriers, shorting out his jetpack, and leaving him exposed to being hit with a volley from the asura's energy gauntlet. The highly charged energy bolts left singed welts where they hit, leaving small pink marks as he landed feet first from the aborted jump. Tsavong glanced down at his new injuries before swinging his hammer low and catching Gaddfly with it. The asura went flying, but he activated jet boots in time to regain control and dropped to the ground gently before overcharging his harness to reactivate his depleted kinetic barrier.

He rolled his neck and looked at him. "You thought I'd break in one hit? Genetic mods, try 'em!"

In response, Tsavong simply drew his plasma pistol with his free hand and fired, catching Gaddfly a few times but his barriers absorbed the worst of the plasma rounds and the bits of plasma that got through were insufficient to damage his outfit. But, it forced the asura into a corner and Tsavong charged in to crush him where even advanced gene mods would not prevent the asura's bones from breaking.

Realizing he was in a corner, the asura activated his tech gauntlet, overloading Tsavong's recharging kinetic barrier again before following it up with a small fireball from the gauntlet. The fireball was non-magical and carried by a small disc six centimeters in diameter and one in depth, but it still exploded in his face with the force of a grenade and caused him to stagger, giving the asura time to get out of the way with his jet boots.

Nei slid backwards from the last blow that Lang had given her. Whoever this caladanian was, she was very skilled in melee combat and in using her strength. _Which means it's time to take away the superpowers,_ she decided as she activated her nullifier gauntlet and shot the pink energy beam towards the caladanian's legs, tripping her onto her back.

"Nullifier gauntlet," Lang grunted as she scowled back at Nei. Or scowled as much as a species with a wide fixed beak could. "Not bad."

Nei smirked, "And now you're dead."

Lang snorted before pushing her sword up so that the blade was raised and let go before rolling backwards and handspringing over it so the sword cut the energy beams and caused them to disperse. This was an impressive, but also dangerous move as while Lang had whatever training she had, she was without her azure enhanced strength thanks to the sapper charge in the nullifier gauntlet's energy beams. While the sword was able to cut through the nullifier beams, it also nearly cut Lang open. But the caladanian landed behind the sword and caught it by the hilt with her foot and nudged it into the air, this time with the blue glow of super strength, and caught it as it came back down. Nei scowled and charged when the blade began glowing again and Lang pointed it at her challengingly. Dismissing it as an arrogant taunt, Nei was about to bring her weapon down with a two handed blow...

... only for a burst of energy to shoot out of the sword and hit Nei in the chest, weakening her kinetic barrier and also slowing her down. But it was not the blow that stopped her, but her shock.

"Whoa..." she said, surprised at what just happened. Her barrier had caught the worst of the blow, but it was not a simple concussive impact like from a caladanian particle rifle being charged by an azure. That would not leave a small residue that would slip by her barrier and burn miniature pockmarks into her armor. It was a plasma bolt, of the kind used by emerald caladanians.

_And it had just been fired by an azure caladanian._

"Impressed?" Lang answered with a smirk. "A little innovation that others didn't think of. Not a full emerald blast, it's more concussive, but it still works. All thanks to a different crystal type for my sword." She channeled more of her power into the sword and fired another set of bolts.

Recovering from her shock, Nei brought her staff weapon down to block the incoming projectiles. It was only two blasts and Nei knew if a third one came she would not of been able to block it with her staff weapon, but the deflected blows shot into the nearby mainframes that were being moved but left abandoned when the fighting started, penetrating the casing and breaking some of the inside electronics. Lang glanced behind her as one of the caladanian mercenaries was knocked into the roof by Uruk's dual power hammers and she glanced towards Gaddfly. "Doc, we got two more behind us!"

Gaddfly had just dodged Tsavong trying to smash him like it was a game of Whack-an-Asura at War'Tec and used his jet boots to slide out of the way. He looked around briefly and groaned loudly. "Who do I have to kill to get some decent anti-lorwardian fighters? Alright, that's it. Time to go!" He keyed an earpiece, "Everyone, this is Gaddfly. Pull out! Cruiser, prep the warhead for launch!"

Only a few of the caladanian mercenaries were left standing from the brawl, but they still grabbed the wounded and dead as the roof was blown in and a _Dragonfly_ line dropship hovered over them. The bay door opened and tractor beams shot towards each of the caladanians. The surviving and still fighting caladanian mercenaries laced the area with particle rifle fire, solid beams of azure charged energy scything across the area as the four lorwardians moved to cover as Lang fired a few more of her concussive plasma bolts down and Gaddfly fired a neural shock that hit Uruk and caused a spasm in his right leg. The suppressive fire kept Nei and Tsavong from getting any accurate shots in with their plasma weaponry or for Tsavong to jump into the air with his jet pack. The dropship's bay doors closed, and it sped away to orbit.

Nei snarled and activated her communicator; "Borivik, are the guns on our side yet? Giar, are you launching? The cowards are running away!"

_"I'm working on the turrets, but the connection is flakey after the damage you caused in there! But the pilots can fly without the guns shooting at them!"_ Borivik answered. _"Come on... ah frackle, I need to hook up the turrets manually, you guys blew out the main conductors with your fight!"_

_"Warsord's team cleared the war factories and pilots are taking off now, but the alien cowards are pulling out!"_ Giar answered, the hum of his engines audible in his transmission. _"Dragonfly fighters are on interdiction duty, but they seem to be evacuating. The bombers seem to be holding back as well."_

_"Kill every alien you can!"_ Warsord ordered, _"For Lorwardia! For Antiga!"_

"Come on," Creske said, covered in caladanian blood from her visceral style of melee. "Let's go add a few more kills."

Tsavong nodded as he checked his jet pack. "Agreed..."

Nei glanced at the ship and grimaced as she wondered how many were captured. "You go on ahead. I need to check something." Tsavong raised an eyebrow briefly, but nodded.

"Go, find your family. We'll kill a few for you." He answered.

"Thank you," Nei answered and she hurried off towards her father's estate. If they were still alive, they would be in one of the many holdouts inside the estate...

XXX

**Two Days Later; Early Morning**

**Orlok the Immortal's Estate**

**Lorwardia, Militant System**

Orlok had heard most of the reports second-hand, but Borivik had been very forthcoming in the details once they got back and he had time to come over and explain what happened. An asuran mad biogeneticist and his surprisingly large number of freelancing mercenary lackeys had hit Antiga with jamming and then some sort of disabling tech which nullified their main guns, disabled fighter response before it could get off the ground, and then began rounding up lorwardians for experiments once the Expansionist defenders were forced to regroup elsewhere in the confusion with their main chain of command gone in the nearby Draco System.

Then his class decided to go on a little adventure and fought the leader of the attack and his top lieutenant, giving Borivik time to disable the jamming signal and eventually reactivate the turrets. By this point, the mercenaries were retreating with their captured cargo of roughly two hundred lorwardians, mostly Manufacturers, and the few pieces of equipment they also loaded onto the heavily modified cruiser. The cruiser fired a warhead later identified to be a biological weapon prototype, but it had failed to detonate properly because the nanite swarm within had eaten itself and the trigger after being launched, and died out before it could be released. All they found inside was gray goo and nonfunctional nanites that initial scans indicated would be beyond reverse engineering.

The mercenaries had retreated, even faster since the warhead did not work, and Nei had found that her family still on the planet were alright. Shortly after, Warlord Warbrin'ger and his surviving forces returned, bruised but bearing resources stolen from the asuran colonies, and a tale of glory against horrendous odds. The asuran colonies, once independent, had joined the Alliance properly and put aside whatever grievances they once had. As a result, a small task force arrived in system and one of their Shadow Cruisers had traded the limited stealth for a new prototype interdiction system which created a fake gravity well, preventing faster than light travel and therefore preventing a quick escape with their stolen loot.

Though the modified Shadow Cruiser was destroyed, Warbrin'ger had taken higher losses than expected and brought home less resources than hoped for. But, the story had given him a boost in prestige. And he likewise had a prestige boost from the battle on Antiga. Although asuran science trumped the initial defense by a 'cowardly nullification of real battle', as the news called it, the local forces with a little help from the Warlord's daughter and her classmates had retaken the planet on their own before major fleet help could arrive from the Altara System or elsewhere.

Still, Orlok was not impressed. Mercenary and pirate forces were always a threat and were quite capable of taking down colonies if they intended to, most of their raids were for resources and in the case of asuran mad scientists, test subjects. It did not surprise him that once they organized and responded in force they were driven off. Disabling defenses and looting a major settlement was trivial compared to the time intensive difficulty of taking and establishing control over a planet in the long term. Raids that could only do temporary control over a small area of a planet were easy to throw back once the defenders were alert and ready.

"Well," Orlok said as he folded his arms and looked at his class. "I see you have all earned scars during your last break... and missed a lesson. All of you, stand."

There were a few uncomfortable mutterings throughout the class as Orlok walked by each of them and struck them twice, his black cybernetic gauntlets leaving bruises where he punched them. After each one had additional bruises to complement their minimal war wounds which had healed in the two days since, he ordered them to sit and began pacing.

"Well, it seems a discussion of the morality of shirking duty to do what you believe is right is in order," Orlok began as he looked at them. "You disobeyed my orders to be present for a lesson, but you did so for reasons which would be lauded in many places. Places that do not understand the sometimes grim requirements of war. The naivety that a warrior can avoid doing something wrong on moral grounds is a subject of fiction and childhood, no matter what definition or moral is being used, be it lorwardian or alien. In fact, disobeying orders if often one of the quickest ways to dying like criminals." He could taste the ice shooting up his student's spines. Nothing terrified a lorwardian warrior as much as being killed ignobly like a criminal, stripped of war name and left out of the annals of history. To become an _unknown_.

"Though, unlike most of them, you did not hide from the fact or attempt to make excuses... which is how a lorwardian warrior should act, as detailed in the Manifest Hierarchy's Rules of War in regards to a warrior's conduct." He caught the eyes being rolled and shook his head. "Even if you all intend to join Expansionist warlords or be such, the Manifest Hierarchy has provided one of the only uniform rules of war in modern lorwardian history. The difference of standard conduct can be... troublesome, when Expansionist warlords work together, no matter how much personal styles work with different rules."

"But, punishment must be meted out regardless, no matter how honorably you have acted in your defiance. Borivik, Giar. Stand." The two stood. "You two are to report after every lesson to the training grounds on this estate; I have been training new warriors for the Manifest Hierarchy. Physically strong brutes and berserkers, and we need sparring partners who are not from their class. You two will do nicely."

"Lucky..." Uruk muttered just a bit too loudly before paling as Orlok gestured for Giar and Borivik to sit and turned to him and Creske.

"Uruk, Creske, stand." He paused a moment to let them rise. "You two are to report to Firebase Warsong after each lesson. There are a few spaces open in Mentalist training there, and they will be focusing on maintenance of equipment and theories. I expect you to be capable of passing their tests by the end or you will not graduate with the rest of the class."

Borivik raised an eyebrow, but stopped himself before he made a comment that Orlok slyly suspected would involve wondering how that was a punishment. He gestured for the two to sit and turned to Nei and Tsavong. "Stand." The two stood. "You two were the ringleaders in this, and while your fathers were not eager to permit it, they relented as you are my students. You two will also report to Firebase Warsong. They are short on hands for the moment and need some additional help stamping out armor plating for troops who will be moving out to the Pyres System to save Warlord BattleF'yuri before he loses our foothold in the system with his uncoordinated attacks. If you slack in your work, I will hear of it."

The two glared at him harshly enough that if glares were plasma bolts, he would be without shields in a second and little more than smoke shortly after. But they simply nodded and sat down when instructed. Orlok returned to the center and began the lesson, focusing on the morality and challenging them to define what they found acceptable in war. But, in between lectures he overheard mutterings of the punishments. Most instructors just punched or used whipping to inflict pain with the idea that it would prepare them to be injured in battle and cope with it.

Orlok believed that if a punishment is to also teach, it needed to teach the antithesis of the individual. Physical combat, the technology that made said combat possible, or humility in the backliners who did not get the glory of war.

XXX

**End Chapter**

Author's Notes:

- _With writing the asura, I pretty much abandon all sanity. The asura were, in my mind, supposed to emphasize and embody the mad science of the _Kim Possible_ setting. That is, they have a lot of awesome tech even above and beyond the future... but their advanced stuff is extremely unreliable and they're liable to lose something like super speed shoes after the immediate critical need is over and also lose the schematics. When it works as intended, it leads to devastating results. Had his ECO warhead worked, Gaddfly would of wiped out the entire city and everyone in it and all that would be left behind is a puddle of broken down goo. But like all asuran prototypes, it is unreliable and sometimes backfired. In this case, the warhead ate itself and failed to do any real damage. On the other hand, the jammer he deployed worked as intended and basically kept everyone in the dark until it started fluctuating. Of course, asuran prototypes include everything from a simple power capacity boost in their shields to modified munitions and energy shots all the way to doomsday devices and one thing armies. The bigger it is (comparatively), the more liable it is to blow up in their face._

_- Translators I'm going to keep very simple; they work by translating incoming words into something the person with the translator understands, ideally their native language which most would be built to do. The method varies from an earpiece, to translation spells and magical artifacts, to cybernetics in the ears/brain that can process it. And for unknown languages like English (from the perspective of aliens), with some sufficient samples the programs can even fill in the blanks reliably enough. So if the perspective character spoke Klingon as their native language, they would hear it in Klingon even if the speaker was an Ewok singing a victory chant on a broken M-35 Mako._

_- The caladanian particle rifles were intended to be Direct Energy Weapons. I've mentally been using the lasers from the future segments of '_A Sitch in Time_' as a reference. The general idea is that they maintain a solid, steady beam as long as they hold down the trigger. Due to the design, most versions gain more power the long that they maintain the beam. Good for wearing down large targets like lorwardians when you drop off on their flank..._

_- I also want to thank kgs for helping me iron out Lang Cai's abilities and shtick. She wouldn't be as unique an antagonist without that feedback._

_- In addition, I want to thank Six-String Samurai for his review._


	5. Chapter 5 - Training: Final Test

_"I used to fight, you know. Going out into the galaxy, fighting asura, caladanians, meriur, even did a few stints against the mydrodants in their own holes! I wasn't the most physical, but my tech was always a great help. But then I took several energy-reflex bolts to the knee, blew it clean off. I replaced it with cybernetics, but magic does nasty things. I was no longer fit for fighting. By the time tech advanced enough for things like Orlok the Immortal to be around, well, I found my place here, arming the next generation."_

- War'Tec, founder and current owner of the War'Tec Arsenal Arena, while drunk after his 129th birthday

XXXX

**Two Weeks After the Raid on Antiga**

**Deep Space Station **_**Alias, **_**Draco System**

"The project's going well, especially with the new samples from raid into the Lorn system last week and our humiliation of Commander Sturnblade there. We're getting most of the bone now instead of needing to use a lot of metal to fill in the needed space. So why are you pacing so much?" Lang Cai asked, datapad in hand as she watched Doctor Gaddfly pacing angrily in the station's meeting room.

"Because, those incompetent, self centered, blind, backwards _nincompoops_ are trying to put a halt on my project! The Collective is starting to call it _dangerous for the whole_!" Gaddfly screamed in anger. "Those fools, the only way to fight lorwardians in their element is to _use_ lorwardian biology! My Fleshbots are the perfect answer, and they are too stupid to realize it! Of course, the meriur are the ones spearheading it." His tone changed as the topic of the meriur came up and it became a mocking sneer. "Their Hierarchy is so caught up in their '_traditions_' and '_ceremony_' and '_introspection_', _and it's losing us this war!_"

"What's the big deal?" Lang snorted, "It's not like we're doing anything illegal. And if it is for them, this isn't meriur territory and the Alliance isn't a free token to go enforcing your laws on other people's turf."

Gaddfly sighed. "Because, the Asuran Collective is a democracy in its purest form. If the majority of a court rules against my work, then it would make my work illegal even if another _less competent_ imbecile was doing the same _important work_!" His lips curled, revealing his sharp teeth as he activated his gauntlet, a small whine charging before he blasted a nearby hologram of some rival that Gaddfly had gotten executed decades ago. If rumor was to be believed, an overdue library holobook was part of the presumably trumped up charges. Inhaling and exhaling sharply, he lowered his gauntlet and shook his head. "No. The project continues apace. I still have much influence in the Collective, there are still those who recognize the importance of my work."

"But not important enough to get us some Alliance support next time we drop into a lorwardian colony?" She asked, narrowing her eyes. "I mean, Sturnblade was fun to humiliate, but we cut it close with his frigates." Sure, they had an old cruiser that had been modified to the point it was at least equal to a modern one, but lorwardian vessels were bigger and usually had stronger guns.

"Of course. They cannot afford to look like they support 'war crimes' or whatever fecal matter the meriur and the pathetic members of caladanian species are shoving down people's throats. Speaking of that, how is the new resource acquisition model responding?"

"The new process is... working better than normal. We get eighty to ninety percent of the bone mass instead of fifty percent like we used too, and other organic matter is clocked in at just short of one-hundred percent, from ninety. Minimal matter wasted in the acquisition process. We should have an additional ten units ready at the end of the station's day/night cycle, but we will need to go looking for more material afterwards." Lang could not help but keep a hint of unease out of her voice as she reported off the datapad. The work that Gaddfly did to their test subjects was nothing short of nightmare fuel. The Fleshbots themselves... not so much, but the process that acquired the needed biomass for them?

That made every threat Gaddfly made to dissect her to see if it was something internal that allowed her to use her powers to charge an emerald crystal blade that much more real regardless of the clauses in her contract.

XXX

**Orlok the Immortal's Estate**

**Lorwardia; Militant System**

"Ow..." Borivik muttered as he pulled himself off the training field and onto a bench. Sparring with brutes was, well, brutal. They might of been green recruits, a very light shade of puce in a few cases, but they hit like four thousand qualock hovertrucks. He had been in extra 'training' with these people for two weeks now, and he was sure that he would never fully heal from the pounding he took. Though, it seemed to become less and less every passing day as he started figuring out being rushed without tech by larger lorwardians. That, or the painkillers were finally kicking in.

"You alright?" one of the trainees, Grom, asked. "You got hammered that last round."

"Yeah... ow, frackle," he bit back as pain shot up his leg. "I think so, I just need to lie down for a bit."

"Heh, right. Real glad you aren't in our class." Grom paused a second before shrugging. "Not everyone's cut out for heavy brawling."

"Yeah, I have the bruises to prove it." He bit his tongue and inhaled sharply as he finally limped over to a nearby bench and laid down on it. Giar was faring much better, thanks to having a little more size and more familiarity with hand to hand, but he was sore too. "Anything else, or you just gloating?"

"Actually, the Warlord wanted to speak to you."

_What'd I do this time?_ he silently bemoaned as the trainee walked off, leaving him wondering if he should have filled Orlok in to their trip to Antiga. Or gone at all. Not going at all probably would of been smarter. Grudgingly, he pushed himself up and walked through the estate to Orlok's office.

Unlike Warbeak's personal chamber, Orlok's office was far more refined in part due to Orlok's retired status. Certainly, he had his tactical aids lying around such as a miniature galaxy map for when he was consulted, but he kept it clean and there was nothing to inflict horror stories of interrogation upon hapless beings. In fact, there was various paintings and works of art, a few of which Borivik recognized as caladanian or meriur from trophies others had taken in their battles against the Alliance. Some said Orlok studied alien cultures, trying to understand more than just where the best place to stick a knife was in order to sever their spine. Unusual, but most let him have his fetish.

"Ah, Borivik." Orlok said with a nod as he entered. "I was wondering if I left the door unlocked for you. Please, have a seat. I saw what Grom did do you in that last session... but you also got him back quite nicely."

"Heh. Thank you, Warlord..." Borivik answered as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his sore neck, pushing his head side to side and wincing at the cracks.

"So. Tell me, why is it that you stay with Nei? With Tsavong?" The elder man asked, holding his gauntleted hands together on the table and resting his chin on them. "They do not appreciate your skills, and I've seen how they react to your 'kill stealing' in the simulators."

Somehow, the fact that Orlok would check on what his students did in the simulators did not surprise him. "Well, they don't pick on me for giggles, at least." He answered honestly, rubbing his left shoulder. "Better than most of the other fighters. Besides, I'm stuck with them for training, so I might as well be friendly."

"But what of after?" Orlok asked. "Your training is almost complete, and it would be a waste for you to have learned command and then go into the Manufacturers where your training would not find use."

"Maybe. But you know why I'm even here..."

"Your parents, yes. This has been discussed, they only seem to have become satisfied after your trip to Antiga." He shook his head before continuing. "Reliable in that they certainly care in their own way. Not so reliable in caring for what you want."

"With all due respect, Warlord, could we just cut to the chase?" Borivik knew this was set up for something. And it was an offer, he could tell. _What, a combat mentalist to shock asuran barriers, shut down caladanian powers, and expose meriur Shadow Disciples? No thanks..._

The older man nodded. "Fair enough. I know you have no desire to go out to battle. And I also know that you are not respected by many of your classmates. Yet you also have training that few with your technical gifts find, most either outright going to the Thinkers or are pulled in to fix things for those who do not wish to learn. If you wish to accept after your graduation, Manifest Hierarchy forces could use a new officer like you on one of their production and science facilities. It is a good distance from the lines, and you would be able to use both your skills and those that I teach you now." He leaned back and reached under his desk, pulling out a small data drive and passing it to him. "The details of the offer are on this data drive. The choice is yours, but I believe that you earned the right to another option."

"T... thank you, Warlord." Borivik stuttered out in surprise. He knew the Manifest Hierarchy was more accepting of technological skill than most, but this was generous. Even amongst the Hierarchy ranks, many only recognized technicians as good in maintaining the war machine and for combat tech. Most could not care less about what the Thinkers did in their labs or what tests they ran until something to kill got loose. This was a rare offer, a chance to be a leader while also being a researcher if he so chose. "I need- no, I want to go over it first, but thank you."

"Take your time, though, do remember that your graduation test is coming up very soon. You will be commanding other warriors from classes like the one you were added to."

He grunted. How could he forget? The only upside was that Orlok and the other instructors here only used simulators, he never sent them into actual warzones like some of the Hunter caste who trained lorwardian warriors and leaders.

XXXXX

**Near Firebase Warsong**

Nei scowled as she and Tsavong walked back to Warbeak's estate. They had been stuck stamping out cheap armor plating and basic components for a week, and the monotony of it was draining on her. She was being trained to _command_, not to put together armor plates that would need to be modified it got to the wearer. Orlok's idea of a punishment seemed to be aimed towards being as degrading to her and Tsavong as possible while Borivik got off easy with combat training!

"At least we're almost done..." Tsavong muttered. "Another four days, and we're done with the monotony of this labor."

"All because you cared enough to help me with my family..." she spat into the street angrily as hovercars passed by. "The Warlord really needs to rethink his morality if he thinks that stopping the asura and caladanians from killing our people is worthy of punishment."

"And that is why the Manifest Hierarchy will eventually fail, because they punish good deeds because it goes against their so-called order..." Tsavong answered, rolling his shoulders and laying a hand on his hammer when three people stepped onto the walkway in front of them from an alley.

"Well well, look who it is!" Cran said with a grin. "It's the new Manufacturers! How does it feel, doing drudge work like one of those spineless whelps? Sure you found a lot of friends to fit in with."

Nei grit her teeth. "At least I have the courage to risk my trainer's wrath to save my family and the rest of the people on my home planet. More than I could say for you."

"Oooh. I hit a soft spot. Guess your war name oughta be Warm'iner! Oh, right, they didn't put you in the mines. Mmm. Maybe we should just skip the war name and let you die without one while you labor in there..."

"Cran," Nei said as she slowly lowered her hand to the back of her belt and gripped her staff weapon. "You should reconsider taunting your betters."

Tsavong shook his head. "She's not even worth the effort, Nei. In fact, she's not worth killing."

The opposing lorwardian laughed lightly, one hand over her mouth to cover it while her other dropped to the hilt of her plasma sword. "My my, I think that you realized I'm out of your league. Finally realized that you should be joining my command instead?" There was a faint crack in her voice while the two trainees behind her snickered, the jet pack user Tsavong beat up in the simulators two weeks ago and another male.

"In your wildest dreams." Nei answered, rolling her eyes.

"Well, you can always swear loyalty to me after your incompetent father gets his planet trashed again-"

Whatever insult she was saying was interrupted as Nei fully extended her staff weapon and swung it, catching Cran in the side of her face and knocking her to the side. Blinking, Cran raised a hand to her face and felt the bruise marks before smiling and leaving her plasma sword holstered and a street side brawl began.

Nei leapt for Cran, but her two lackeys jumped her, one going for each arm, forcing her to drop her weapon. She threw the smaller one into a nearby street lamp and turned to get leverage on the other one. He released one of his hands and used it to swing a mean right hook that knocked her head back, but she recovered from the blow and used his decreased leverage to get under and trip him. He let go as he landed on his back and she followed up by stomping his chest, knocking what wind remained from him as the smaller one leapt back into the fray and tackled her.

Tsavong brawled with Cran in close quarters, the two gripping each other's hands and trying to force the other to let go. _I'm going to rip her in half if Tsavong doesn't do so first,_ she thought as she pushed the smaller one off as the larger man stumbled back onto his feet again as they heard sirens. She growled, charging the large one again and knocked him onto his back, stomping him in the face and breaking his nose as the smaller one came around for another try.

This time he was smarter, grabbing her other leg and pulling as hard as possible, taking her balance out from under her and dropping her face first onto the pavement and giving her her own cuts and bruises from her landing on the side of the curb. She rolled onto her back and looked at the smaller lorwardian who was grinning widely before she kicked him with the foot he had grabbed her by.

The wide grin turned into grunts of pain as she repeatedly hit him in the head and he let go, stumbling backwards as Cran sent Tsavong flying over the fight and into a lamppost with a throw as she managed to get good leverage. Nei rose to take Cran down, but then the entire area was flashing with green energy rounds from above as several lorwardians in heavy purple armor dropped onto the ground from a police hovercraft in a semi circle around them, pinning them towards the wall. The craft itself had filled the area with high powered stun bolts meant to stun lorwardians, while the two warriors on watch duty drew their heavy shields and large clubs and advanced forward, shields up and clubs ready as more stun fire sprayed in.

Nei blacked out, but not before swinging the smaller of Cran's lackeys into one of the riot warriors, knocking him over with the sheer weight.

XXX

**Spar'Tan's Blood and Tankard Tavern**

"Anyone seen Nei or Tsavong?" Uruk asked as he drank deeply, some of the brew spilling into his forked beard.

"Not since class," Giar answered with a shrug from across the table. "Maybe they're getting some practice in for their final?"

"Which we probably should do," Borivik pointed out. "I mean, I assume we aren't allowed to step in personally, right? So we need to make sure we know the capabilities of common equipment. Creske, drill me."

"Uh, alright." The female lorwardian rose and pulled her fist back. _Should of seen this coming,_ Uruk thought in amusement as he wiped the froth from his mouth.

Borivik barely had time to overcharge his kinetic barrier before the punch connected, leaving the brute wondering why the techie kept an active barrier so far from war. "I said drill me, not punch me!"

"I am drilling you!" Creske answered with a wide grin as she pulled her hand back and shook away the pain from having it be stopped in full while Borivik began recharging his barrier manually. "How do you respond to someone trying to drill you with a punch?"

"That's not what I..." he sighed. "I meant, quiz me on the capabilities of things. You know, asuran battle machina types, meriur spellcasters, caladanian empowered, myrodant defenses. Even the ancient stuff like minos spectrum cannons."

"Why do you care about that stuff?" Uruk finally asked, amazed at Borivik's constant... _nerdage_. "I mean, the ancient stuff. Do you really think that they would throw us against those extinct walking bovines as our final?"

"Well, if they want to see how we adapt to a situation, using old stuff that was able to fight in a space age war is a great way for keeping us from just recognizing the threat and bringing out the usual countermeasures." The mentalist shrugged. "Besides, underestimating tech because its old is a bad idea. You never know when someone using kinetic slugs is actually a pretty dangerous threat; you can do a lot of stuff with kinetic slugs that you can't do with energy rounds or plasma..."

"Enough," Uruk cut off, "I get the picture. I've had enough tech talk at the stupid base from those stupid Mentalist teachers."

"Hey," Borivik scowled in anger, a funny sight given his thin build, "if it weren't for the Mentalist Program the meriur would have a _party _with their spellcasters! Not much more you can do besides say 'frackle' when you're fighting a Shadow Disciple in a poorly lit area, or being burned by a Scion with an evocation streak."

"Evo-what?" Creske asked with a confused frown as she held her flagon a few centimeters from her mouth.

"Evocation. You know, offensive magic? Blasting you into star dust with high speed mystic missiles? Incendiary ones if it's a positive meriur."

"Uh, right. So, Tsavong and Nei?" Uruk said, head already hurting from more technobabble. "I thought they were supposed to be finished with that insult the Warlord put on them for the day."

Giar shrugged as he it was not like them to be late, and they all doubted it was anything to do with their constantly interrupted passes at each other. He glanced around towards the wait-robot and raised an eyebrow. "Maybe they ran into Cran on the way here?" The pilot offered.

"Street brawl?"

"Probably. And you know how that ends around here."

"Imperium Enforcers breathing up and down your neck." Creske nodded, causing Uruk to remember the couple brawls she had gotten into.

XXX

**Several Hours Later**

**Imperium Capital Prescient Four**

"Alright," the burly Imperium Enforcer captain said as he folded his arms and looked at Nei, Tsavong, Cran, and her two flunkies as they sat across from him. "I get it, you have it out for each other. But take it to an arena or your own property, not in the streets of the city."

"Fine." Nei bitterly answered. "Can we go now?"

"Yes." The captain answered. "But don't let us catch you fighting again unless you take it inside, understood? And make sure you grab your weapons on the way out."

_Oh shut up,_ she thought bitterly as she pushed herself up and walked out of the station, grabbing her staff weapon from the door guard. The other warriors on watch duty, Enforcers, stood around the station discussing things with each other in their dark purple armor. These were the colors traditional to the lorwardian Imperator and ruler of the Lorwardian Imperium. Though technically all fighting lorwardians of the Imperium or its vassal nations were under the Imperator's command, as a matter of practice lorwardian warlords were able to choose to obey the orders and move their war party to a chosen field or refuse to follow. Most obeyed orders from the Imperator as a matter of honor, however.

Tsavong followed Nei out and the two realized that it was nighttime when they were released. "That went fairly well," he commented, turning his neck to get a crack out of it from the tightness left by Cran's attacks. "We beat them fairly handily before the Enforcers showed up with their stun cannons."

"True," she admitted as she rubbed the back of her neck, sore from the heavy duty stun blasts. They were nonlethal, but were nonlethal by lorwardian standards. By asuran or even caladanian standards, they were merely less than lethal. "Though, we should get to sleep once we get back, assuming your father does not decide to reprimand us over this. We have our final test soon."

"Ah, he doesn't care. Besides, she started it with her arrogance and we weren't going to kill her." He shrugged. "And well, the time spent locked up is punishment enough."

She nodded. "So, do you have any plans once we graduate?"

"I was thinking of celebrating with a hunt. The Moon of Partha has reserves which will be in season soon. You want to come?"

Nei blinked in surprise a moment before stuttering out an answer. "I, uh, sure, yeah. Sounds good. Yeah, I'll come."

He nodded with a smile. "It would be nice to have company; the thorgoggles are quite a prize. Attuned with lightning, even able to redirect it!" He swung his hand down to emphasize the point, grinning widely and clearly enjoying the prospect of the kill. So was she, imagining being on the hunt... just a week until their final. Pass that, and they would graduate on the spot.

Fail, and she would be unlikely to ever hold a true command of her own.

XXXX

**One Week Later**

**Lorwardian Stardate 8/4/578**

**War'Tec Arsenal Arena**

"To command is a great honor," Orlok began, standing in front of the students of both his class and others. "But it is also a great responsibility and burden. Warriors will look up to you for leadership, for guidance as to where they go to fight. You chose where they go into battle. And as is the course of war, where some or many shall go to die."

Nei, sitting between Uruk and Tsavong on the left side of the room with her classmates, almost shook her head at Orlok's grim monologue. He always was uptight, just like the rest of the Hierarchy. Yes, warriors die in battle. But if they did, then they either fought a great foe or were too weak for the situation.

"Therefore, it is our responsibility to give you one final test before you take command." The black armored cyborg continued, looking at each trainee in the audience as he spoke. "To command a battle of your own within these simulators, to prove that you have learned how to command and do so effectively. In this, your own personal martial skills will be irrelevant for you shall not be upon the ground to fight. You must win through your skill of command, tactical cunning, and your knowledge of strengths and weaknesses."

"Frackle," Uruk muttered under his breath. Nei glanced to the far side of the room where Cran was sitting with her class, and to her disappointment the rival looked confident still unlike the brute sitting to her left.

"Now then, Nei, daughter of Warlord Warbrin'ger, you shall go first. Enter the command suite, and begin the simulation." Orlok looked to her and nodded firmly, gesturing for her to rise.

She rose from her seat, heart pounding and emotions swirling. This was it. The point where she would prove worthy to command... or fail and become a reject. Some felt there was no dishonor as not all were suited for command. But she knew she was destined for greater. To fail here and never be trusted with a command again?...

Her thoughts were interrupted by someone grabbing her hand. She paused and looked back to see Tsavong smiling at her. "Go get them."

Nei smiled back as he let go and walked towards the simulator's command suite. In the crowd of observers, she saw her father who nodded with a warm smile. She returned the nod and walked past the instructors and into the command suite, a red force field activating behind her as she entered the small room. None would see her progress, nor be able to aid her. It was down to her alone to plan this out, and ensure the warriors who fought in the simulator followed her plans, followed her orders.

For the first time in her life, she would have lorwardian warriors to command in the field of battle, simulated or not. Antiga had been close, but it was not leading a war party, just her and a few friends to take a specific objective as part of a larger war plan. Now, she would have her first taste of true command.

The command suite was dark red thanks to the metal flooring and the lighting, but the holodisplays were bright enough that the light did not hinder their distinct colors. The suite was dominated by a tactical map, which displayed the terrain and major positions with extreme accuracy. And thanks to the simulators it was connected to, it would also perfectly catch the movements of every individual as long as one warrior could perceive them. A rare gift for a tactician as often such displays had to be simplified due to lack of recording equipment, and an edge she intended to take every use of. The rest of the suite was several communication consoles to allow her to connect to different warriors and several displays to allow her to bring up information within the stored database, ranging from information on specific groups of warriors or even individuals all the way to reports on major positions in the map.

The tactical map currently showed the bay of a _Conquest_-class Dreadnaught where the warriors were waiting. She smiled faintly, remembering Tsavong's stories of his time as a trainee in these battles. All local trainers of warriors would volunteer their classes to these, both to give the leader to be a more realistic sense of what commanding an war party was like and so the warriors could get experience in what it was like to be part of such a force. To victory or defeat, often both, the warriors who participated in these simulators would get more than their fill of battle as each commander-to-be began their test. Between such they rested, messing around in the simulator and waiting for their first orders to be given.

Nei took her spot in the center of this suite and looked to one of the displays which was blinking and she activated it. A message popped up, narrated by the voice of a deep voiced male and the tactical map changed to show what it spoke of.

_"You have been assigned to lead a reinforcement war party to support this contested planet."_ The display zoomed out to show the planet itself, primarily mountainous and tropical with temperate zones and tundra closer to the poles. Two colors then covered the planet's landscape, purple for the lorwardians and green for the Alliance. _"The Lorwardian Imperium has colonized much of this planet, but so have the caladanians with support of the Alliance. The latest warzone is here,"_ the map zoomed in to show a specific region of rugged tropical terrain, _"and here is where you shall command. There are five caladanian colony bases, four of which are smaller while the fifth acts as their center and is the location of their primary forces."_

Nei observed the map, noting the layout of the colony bases. The central one was located on a large plateau with three main ways in, one facing the lorwardian territory and one to the two outermost settlements. The remaining two caladanian settlements were behind the outer three and difficult to reach without bypassing at least one of the outer locations. Two to the east, two to the west.

_"This central colony base is the key to the caladanian effort in this region as it provides much of the military support and assistance needed for the other settlements to survive. Destroying it will be a great blow and is your objective."_ The main base was highlighted with purple flashes on the map and another display activated, showing orbital reconnaissance of the site. Multiple Minotaurus walkers and platoons of caladanian soldiers with asura and meriur auxiliaries mixed within. She smiled; destroying a base would be simple...

_"You must also ensure the security of the lorwardian settlements."_ The message continued, as if to taunt her for that assumption. _"They are all fortified and warriors are present to defend them, but the loss of these settlements could prove detrimental to our own colonization effort."_ The four lorwardian settlements were highlighted with purple flashes on the tactical map. She sighed; having to protect them would be an annoyance that would divert her forces from killing the enemy even though the settlements were already fairly fortified like any good lorwardian city.

_"Force the caladanians to withdraw, and protect our own settlements. You may begin."_

The transmission ended, and Nei leaned over the tactical map, looking at her forces. Plenty of warriors, some with hoverboards or bikes for rapid transit, some with jet packs, some with personal gear. But they were all eager for a fight and were supported with heavy walkers and robotics. The walkers were traditional lorwardian designs. Two story tall Strike Walkers for main war machina, a pair of Siege Walkers for long range and volatile artillery strikes, and a few Anti-Aircraft Walkers built off the Strike Walker chassis to ward off air attacks. Supporting this was an array of warbots just under a lorwardian's height, ranging from the gate melting Annihilatron, the harmonic shockwave creating Tremorater, and the versatile but insidious Neural-Atomic Disabler. Standard munitions for world domination and conquering the enemy. Air support consisted of eight Thannix fighters and three Elcor bombers. She nodded to herself as she started considering a plan, and activated a general channel.

"Warriors, listen up!" She began, taking a moment to let them start paying attention "This battle is going to be won with the enemy's blood. We will land and shatter their base of power. Board your transports, and prepare for landing coordinates." While the warriors began moving into their transports to begin the mission, she looked over the defenses of the main colony base. A network of multipurpose caladanian crystal turrets and a shield generator protected it from artillery and gave a perimeter guard, inversely. Meanwhile, Minotaurus Walkers of caladanian origin, old but serviceable Bluejay battle machina, several squadrons of Vulture scout mechs, two squadrons of Dragonfly starfighters, and the platoons of caladanian infantry formed the bulk of the defenses. Asuran support consisted of small teams of infantry, constructs, and light vehicles, while the meriur troops were surprisingly spread out amongst the colony bases and entirely infantry based on the orbital reconnaissance shots. A formidable force, but one she could beat.

She began arranging deployments, thinking of how she would bring the force in to hit the enemy and how the enemy would respond. They would crush the enemy with a three pronged attack. A Siege Walker would be in the left and right forces, while the main group of Strike Walkers went in the middle to crush their frontal defenses under plasma ordnance and lorwardian metallurgy. Warriors and robotic support would be evenly split to fill in the gaps. With the deployments ready, she activated the general channel again.

"Warriors, you have your orders. Kill every alien who opposes you and leave no survivors. Bring the war to and into their homes. For Lorwardia!" She shouted, smiling viciously. Although it was a simulator, getting their blood riled and getting them invested in the fight was important in a leader. Even here, motivated warriors fought better than those just going along with it. The drop ships began to speed to the planet and walkers began dropping onto the planet from orbit, crashing into the ground and leaving craters before the walkers unpacked their legs, shields and plasma weapons activating.

"So," she said to herself without surprise, "Hierarchy equipment." She shook her head, disappointed in having to use the Hierarchy's overly heavy gear ill suited for a hunt. Their lack of laser fencing made it difficult to trap fleeing enemies for later sport or slave labor, but the additional shields were useful in open combat. _And I suppose that's what it is,_ she decided. Open combat with an organized and armed opponent with technological parity. Kinetic barriers were simply needed for their war machine.

As her three main landing parties deployed, the fighters and bombers went to a landing pad at the rearmost lorwardian settlement along with two gunships full of warriors. They were her mobile reserve. If no one attacked, they could help her main assault. If someone attacked, they could respond to it quickly and allow her to keep her main forces focused on the real battle.

_"Grom here; west force has landed."_

_"Central warriors landed. Azog ready to kill."_

_"East side's ready to go. Gimble leading."_

_"This is Thannix Leader; I have Thannix Five ready to lead the other half of the squadron in case we need to split up. Ready to launch as needed."_

She nodded. "Move into position." The artillery would move up to deploy and shell the base, while the central team waited a bit further back to allow the defenders to split their focus before rushing in. The three groups moved forward, meeting little opposition. Grom's team ran into some guerillas, caladanians with jet packs for rapid getaways, but nothing too dangerous to their armor. They would fire a few beams from their particle rifles, then run away to try and escape retaliation. Overall, their damage was negligible and Grom's warriors killed some on their escape. So far, so good.

Then Gimble's force was at a fork in the road between the central base and the eastern outer settlement when it came under fire from mechs and turrets defending the closer settlement and its defenders were digging in. Beams of fire from Bluejay mechs were scything into the nearest Strike Walker as its plasma guns slid around the walker's rim to return fire and Nei frowned. The settlement's defenders would be easy to crush, but they were on a tight schedule and the delayed deployment of the Siege Walker might inhibit the overall plan and let the defenders crush a side.

_"We're under fire! Orders?"_ Gimble asked. _"Let us at them, please!"_

"Hold the course for now and return fire as you move by. Keep to the plan, you can kill them later-"

_"Warflame Settlement under attack by caladanian warriors! We need help!"_ a panicky female lorwardian's voice shouted as a new channel was opened. Nei saw the attackers on the map; striking the furthest western settlement. She shook her head. "Response team, get in there."

_"Finally!"_ the lead Thannix pilot shouted as they took off and got moving. The warriors had disembarked from the gunship and it took time for them to get back on, but they were soon following when the eastern settlement, Peace's Folly, was attacked by asuran constructs and a few caladanian jet pack equipped infantry. She sighed. "Gunship two, fighters five to eight, bomber three, divert to Peace's Folly to assist."

_"A fight just for us? Thank you!"_ the warrior on the second gunship cheered and they swung around. _Once nice thing about being in the air,_ she thought, _easy to switch_. Hopefully, that would shut down any more attacks. But if another settlement came under fire, she would have to consider...

"Oh frackle," she said as she realized something. "Gimble, Grom, Azog, hold position."

_"What? We're going to war!"_ Azog whined before passing on the order.

_"Frackle! We're getting hit by those mechs what is it?!"_ Gimble answered in annoyance from the fact he could not personally return fire at the ranges going on.  
"I am uploading a new plan. Grom, Gembe, strike the settlements nearest to you. Azog, split your force into two groups and stand by to deploy them quickly and have your hunters observe the base. Are you still out of range of their artillery?"

_"Yeah, we are unless they move the Condors up. Why?"_ Azog complained, the bald man rolling his eyes.

"Just follow the orders, you'll see the all the caladanian blood you want in this fight," she answered. She would not put it past Orlok to have their mid-battle transmissions being monitored and decryption simulated.

_"Fine, you're the war boss here."_ Azog's warriors came to a halt and began splitting into two groups while Gimble and Grom started wrecking the settlement's defenders. Hunters moved out from Azog's force to observe the base and uploaded information, showing reinforcement teams coming in. Nei smiled.

"Azog, take one of your two forces to help Grom, and send the other to Gimble. You're going to crush some reinforcements. Grom, Gimble, be alert for incoming Alliance forces from the base."

She received several acknowledgements as the battle continued and Nei watched, still wishing she could be there in person as the battles began. Grom had been jumped by a meriur Shadow Disciple, the stealthy magic user impaling one of Grom's fellow warriors with an energy-reflex punch blade, but was killed by Grom's plasma sword before he could pull back and get back into the shadows to hide.

_"Incoming missiles!"_ another warrior called and she turned to see the gunship sent to support Peace's Folly being shot down by an asuran Disruptor-class hovercraft, a sleek vehicle with two missile pods. The missiles crashed into the gunship and the miniature electromagnetic pulse charges within killed the gunship's electronics and caused it to crash. Nei sighed and activated that channel.

"I better not need to send more warriors down there for rearguard clean up, so get to the settlement on foot."

_"We'll get into the fight, don't worry!"_

"Good. Elcor Bomber three, kill the asuran vehicle." She turned her attention away from the annoying backdoor raids and turned her focus back to the real battle and coordinating its flow. The reinforcement teams sent to help the settlements arrived shortly before Azog's forces, catching Gimble and Grom in a pincer. Most of their warriors had turned to respond to the new challenge while only a fraction of them stayed focused on mopping up the remaining defenders, but the split focus cost them warriors and walkers, one Strike Walker notably collapsing and crushing a number of Gimble's warriors and colony housing as it fell under the guns of Minotaurus mechs.

Then Azog's forces finally cut through the terrain and joined the battle. This caught the Alliance forces with open flanks and the fighting began in earnest. The the strength of lorwardian warriors and their heavy walkers proved their worth, cutting into the Alliance's infantry squads and vehicles. Infantry fought in close quarters as the caladanians were forced to switch to their blade feathers instead of their particle weaponry, while mechs and walkers blasted each other. The Siege Walkers held fire and moved behind the protection of their other walkers, and Nei knew why. She had seen footage of them collapsing from battle damage and the resulting losses.

The battles were costly, as the caladanians sent their air support to strafe the attacking forces, rocket fire and energy repeaters blasting warriors and walkers alike. But these airstrikes did not go unpunished as they were fired upon by the plasma cannons and missile pods mounted on the Anti-Aircraft Walkers, bringing down many of the winged aircraft before they could compensate. But once the settlement defenders were killed Grom and Gimble were able to throw their full weight into the response parties and crushed _them_ in between the hammer and anvil. The end result was maybe a forth of their total forces damaged, too wounded to continue, or destroyed, but the Alliance lost more than that. Ratios could be decided on later, however. For now, it was time to win.

"Good work." Nei ordered as she pulled up the latest updates on Alliance strength at the main base, nodding to herself as she read them. "Now, move on the base while it is bleeding from the losses you just dealt. Artillery, shell the base as warriors move up to get under the shields. Walkers are to force holes in the shields for the warbots to slip under and neutralize the turrets. Azog's teams are to go around the flank and draw attention while going into the middle." She zoomed the tactical map in on the base itself, protected from long range strikes by a shield generator.

_"With pleasure!_" Azog answered, and the lorwardian forces converged on the base. The defenders put up a fight, the base shield being whittled down by the heavy guns of the Siege Walkers. These powerful cannons had long range, bombarding from near the settlements they ruined. Gimble and Grom were pushing in, blowing holes in the shield bubble to allow the Annihilatrons through to begin using their cutting lasers to cut apart the caladanian crystal turrets, which were always versatile. Switching the crystalline matrix, these defensive guns could change from something suited to taking down squads of warriors to something to target aircraft with a short period of time to cycle to the appropriate matrix.

Nei smiled, and allowed the battle to commence in earnest. These warriors did not need her guidance anymore. They would either win or fall by their martial skills, this was not one of the strategy games where warriors answered instantly to micromanagement. She watched the battle anyways, to see the feats of strength the non-simulated lorwardian warriors involved performed and to watch the colony base crumble under the combined attack. They put up a strong fight, Minotaurus mechs firing away at their preferred foe, walkers, but when not doing that their cannons suppressed the warriors moving in from repeated explosions. The quick but fragile bipedal Vulture mechs leapt from the ground to the tops of buildings and attempted to stay out of reach of the lorwardian warriors themselves. Bluejay mechs, while an older design that predated the Minotaurus' arrival in the Second Battle of Ghedi Minor years ago, were still dangerous and their heavy particle cannons were suited for cutting through both warbots and warriors who were caught in the open.

However, between having already lost their air support trying to protect the settlements and being hammered from three angles, the caladanian garrison and their Alliance allies collapsed under the weight of the three hordes of lorwardians, which met up in the center of the base as they crushed the caladanians personally. Some of the caladanians were of the Empowered, and she watched one of the azure charged caladanians pick up an Annihilatron and hurl it into a squad of warriors, killing them in the resulting explosion as its core was crushed in the crash. Nei felt a surge of jealousy in spite of it being a sim as Azog then fought that caladanian and killed her, ripping her head off and kicking the body into an asuran spellcaster and crushing him under the body and the armor it wore.

_"Haha! We did it!"_ Gimble shouted as the last few caladanians activated jet packs as they leapt off the nearest cliff, plasma bolts from the warriors and walkers firing at them as they fled.

_"That should break them. Get off our simulated planet you alien scum!"_ Azog shouted, beating his chest and making a rude gesture at a fleeing caladanian who had just barely escaped his wrath.

_"Command, we wrapped up the main base. How did the settlements do?"_ Grom asked. Nei looked down and sighed. Peace's Folly had been broken and heavily damaged, but Warflame stood proud if with defenses. A few fighters and one of the bombers were shot down, while the rest had battle damages.

"One settlement was damaged but the others are fine." Nei answered. "But we're not done yet."

_"Remaining raiders going for settlements?"_ Grom asked.

"No. There are two caladanian settlements that were not touched, correct? They'll be sending evacuation transports as soon as possible to evacuate civilians." Or would if this was reality.

_"You want to go after them?"_ Grom asked, confused. _"I love the extra practice, but I think we can call this a win."_

"And we will celebrate it by bringing the joys of this war to the caladanians unlucky enough to have not seen it." She smiled; they had this. Although down to half strength, mostly wounded unable to fight with a forth of her forces actually lost to death or destruction, they still had their heaviest weapons and the Alliance forces had been all but completely eradicated. All they had to do was sit back and let the siege walkers fire, though the extra fighting would lure the warriors in to finish the smaller garrisons personally. "Destroy the settlements and scatter the survivors. Then we can consider this a victory."

_"Yes ma'am. Who is going where?"_

She smiled, and issued out the orders.

XXX

Orlok knew that she had won, the instructors were given that much by the simulator before the tests ended, but the delay spoke much of what she was doing. This had happened in the past. A leader wins, then decides to add insult to injury by having his or her warriors destroy any survivors. A waste of time and a risk of far more casualties given the completed objectives, but it spoke much of the character of the leader and how they acted in victory. Nei, he knew, would be a warmonger. When victorious she would burn down all her foes and scatter the survivors into forced diasporas, if only to hunt them down later in a more challenging way than shooting them in the battle itself. And she was one who respected the tradition of the war name, one that was earned, not claimed.

As she exited the command suite, the predatory grin on her face told him how satisfied she was with her victory. And when he later overviewed her test scenario, it made sense why she was so proud of it. Her forces took losses, but many were only bad wounds and her troops would have recovered from them within a day and walkers could be salvaged or replaced. She had won and brought war to every settlement of the enemy.

As Warfaes rose to order one of her students to enter the command suite, Orlok decided that between this, the fights she had gotten into in her years of training, and the trip to Antiga, she had her war name.

XXX

**Several Hours Later**

Nei had sat back down triumphantly and the hours passed quickly in spite of having to sit patiently as others did their tests. She had passed. _She had won!_ She would lead warriors into battle and assemble her own host. Perhaps even become a Warlord herself one day! Tsavong, Borivik, and Giar also came out smiling proud of their wins, while Uruk and Creske had, from their mutterings, been outflanked too easily by the defenders. _Which means their usual problems,_ she decided, but she was too proud of herself to think deeply about their potential predicaments.

Finally, as the last trainee (Cran) left the simulator, Warlord Warfaes and Orlok rose together and nodded, taking center stage together.

"It is my pleasure to announce that all who trained have successfully passed." Orlok declared, and everyone began cheering. Nei and Tsavong grabbed each other, smiling as wide as their mouths would allow them to. Sure, it meant that Cran would be a rival, but they passed!

"Settle down, settle down," Warfaes bellowed and those assembled began taking their seats, though most were still wearing grins. And in Uruk and Creske's case, relief. "Some of you only barely made it, but the great majority of you succeeded admirably. As is traditional, all recordings and transcripts of these operations will be released in due time. Warlord?" She nodded to Orlok as he took center stage again.

"Nei, step forward."

Still smiling, she rose and walked up to officially graduate into the leaders of the Lorwardian Imperium. She stood in front of Orlok, the black plated cyborg looking at her with a mix of pride and hesitance.

"It is every instructor's greatest desire to see a pupil excel," he began, "and you are one such pupil. Though you have your faults, who amongst us have none?, you have above many of the expectations I set. I, Orlok the Immortal, Warlord of the Lorwardian Imperium, hereby grant you the title of Captain and the authority to raise and command warriors into your service and into battle."

She had to fight to keep her smile from growing too wide as she lowered her head. "Thank you, Warlord. It was an honor to learn from you." And it was even with his added philosophical waxing. He had taught her well, no matter how much his lessons grated her patience. She had literally learned from the best, and intended to one day join them.

"It is also an instructor's prerogative to note traits of the individuals. During your time, I have seen you seek out war. From fights with your peers," he took a sidelong glance to Cran at this, "to being willing to risk harsh punishment to defend your home planet, and the time you took within the simulator... it all speaks to your desire to find and claim war, to spread it to all your foes until they have been burned by its fires. Would you contest this?"

She shook her head, "No. War defines us, and bringing it to any of our enemies is a way of allowing _them_ to define themselves as much as it brings us glory from victory."

The cyborg folded his arms with a faint nod. "Indeed, _Warmonga_, indeed. If you take it, you have earned a proud war name. One that others have held, as no war name is truly unique anymore, but it is a proud one with many victories to its bearers' name."

A war name. A _war name_. She did not see the look of surprise on Warfaes' face as few instructors gave their pupils such at graduation anymore. But she had a war name!

"T- Thank you, Warlord," she answered, unable to keep the shock from her voice as Orlok handed her a hide scroll which contained the written proof of her graduation.

Warbrin'ger came down from where he observed and stood next to her. "Thank you, Warlord, for your training." He turned to her and smiled warmly and put a hand over her shoulder.

"I'm so proud of you, Warmonga."

XXXXX

**End Chapter**

_- That ends first act of this story, the introduction to the setting. Warmonga has earned the name that we know her by. Her fellow classmates have too, each earning a name that will share traits of their character. I must say, using the birth names was something I was somewhat leery on because it would hide Warmonga and Warhok for the first act. But... I realized it was also a useful tool. It would allow me to not need to make a war name for every lorwardian character. Plus, it would be a way to identify the experience of a warrior. Warname? They have experience. Birth name? Trainee, too young, non-combatant (by lorwardian standards), or just inexperienced._

_- I apologize for the long delay in this update, but I have begun college work and did a pre-college online course which ate up most of my time in July to work on this chapter. I hope the wait was worth it for those who followed the story. Wrapping up the arc here as a way of restarting felt appropriate._

_- Now, I believe that Warhok's final training mission is something that should be seen as he accomplishes it in a very different manner than Warmonga did. But, Warmonga is more the central character of this story than he is, and it fit the flow of the story better not to include it. But for now, the simulators are done with. Real battle awaits our young lorwardian heroes. Well, heroes of Homeric definition, at least._

_- You may of noticed the term 'battle machina' in use. Well, the asuran Disruptor hovercraft or the caladanian's Bluejay would for all intents and purposes be tanks. A hovertank and a four legged one, but a tank nonetheless. But the thing is, the etymology of the term 'tank' as in a military vehicle came from World War I where the British pretended they were making mobile water tanks for supply purposes. It just caught on and became the term we know today. So, it did not make sense to me for the term tank to be out there in the galaxy unless everyone had that same circumstances. After talking with some writers from the Kim Possible Discussion Forum here on FF dot net, the term 'battle machina' came up and I ran with it, mech being shorthand. _

_- What's next for Warmonga and Warhok? Well, there's a certain hunt that they mentioned while chasing a certain pubescent heroine and her slacker boyfriend. Plus, they need to start building their war host for the battles ahead._

_- Finally, I want to thank those who have been following this story and those who have helped me with this, both here on Fanfiction dot net and over at Spacebattles dot com._


End file.
